The Kansas City Chiefs know that they’re going to have to expect the unexpected in Week 17 against the Denver Broncos.
Their AFC West rival dismissed HC Nathaniel Hackett earlier this week, promoting senior offensive assistant Jerry Rosburg to interim head coach. The Broncos also made changes to the special teams coordinator and offensive line coach.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Chiefs HC Andy Reid explained the unique challenge that the coaching changes present in Week 17.
“With the coaching changes, I mentioned to the team that you’re never quite sure what you’re going to see,” Reid said. “You’ve got to be ready for anything and everything and make sure you bring in the energy that you need to take care of business.”
Reid is familiar with Rosburg due to the time that he spent in Baltimore with John Harbaugh. Rosburg was a colleague of both Steve Spagnuolo and Joe Cullen, but they won’t be focusing so much on preparing for the coach as they will on Denver as a team. Reid says it’s important that you study the main things the Broncos have been doing and doing well.
“You hit the things — the primary things that they’ve been doing,” Reid said. “But you’ve got to keep your eyes open. You’ve got to be aware of any adjustments. There might be more sideline adjustments that you have to make or in-game adjustments that I might have to put on. So, we’ll see how it goes, but that’s where we’re at.”
As for Patrick Mahomes, he’s honed in on what he can do to perform better than he did in the Week 14 matchup against the Broncos. Even with the coaching changes, this is still the same team that came back from down 27-0 to force a closer-than-expected game.
“They played us tough this last one,” Mahomes said. “They gave us everything that we could ask for. We have to go out there and play our best ball. When you look at the tape, you see the talent that they have and how hard they play. So, for us, it’ll be a great opportunity to play a rival at Arrowhead and we have to find a way to get a win.”
Mahomes threw three interceptions in Denver in Week 14 and he hasn’t thrown a single interception in the games since. He’ll look to keep playing clean football this week.
“They did a good job of following my eyes and making plays on some balls that I was trying to throw into some tight windows,” Mahomes said. “So, I’ve got to make sure to just take what’s there and not try to force it. They’ve got great players that make a lot of great plays. So, for me and for this team, we’ve got to go out and play our best ball. We know that we have to play our best ball if we want to win.”
