Patrick Mahomes makes feelings known about Chiefs' final stretch of regular season games - "It is not a good feeling"
Patrick Mahomes is not too happy with the final stretch of games that the Chiefs have to navigate leading up to the New Year. They play on Sunday against the Browns, followed by the Texans the next Saturday, and then face the Steelers on Christmas Day. That makes it three matches in 11 days.
Asked how he is preparing for it, ESPN reported the quarterback saying,
"All you can do is focus on the game and the practice that you had that day. I try to prepare my body all year long for this stretch by tailoring my workouts, tailoring how you practice and you prepare. The coaches do a great job of taking care of us on the practice field. We practice hard as anybody, but they know how to kind of dial it back when we need it."
However, Patrick Mahomes also made it clear he is not thrilled about it. Last year, the Chiefs lost to the Chargers on Christmas Day. He said,
"It is not a good feeling. I'm excited to play on Christmas to hopefully get back from what we did last year [losing against Raiders in 2023], but you never want to play this many games in this short of time. It's just not great for your body. But at the end of the day, it's your job, your profession. You have to come to work and do it."
Chris Jones joins Patrick Mahomes in criticizing Chiefs' schedule
The Texans, Ravens, and the Steelers all have had to play three games in 11 days. But all of them have had their byes in Week 9 or later, beyond the season's midpoint. Kansas City had theirs in Week 6. Star defender Chris Jones is not happy about it and said that he will raise this issue with the NFLPA that if a team has to play these many games in a short period of time, the bye has to come later. He echoed Patrick Mahomes by commenting,
"This is one thing I'm doing this offseason is I'm going to the NFLPA, especially with us having three games in [an 11-day] span, that we're mandatory to have a late bye week... That's a conversation to have this offseason. If a team has somewhat of a schedule like that, they should get a late-season bye. We don't need a Week [6] bye ... Give it to us in Week 8, Week 10, something like that."
If the Chiefs win the AFC, as it looks likely, then they will get a bye week in the Wild Card round and have some time to rest.