After defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 29-10 on Christmas Day, the Kansas City Chiefs improved to 15-1 and clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
With two games remaining, the Buffalo Bills can’t finish better than 14-3, so KC is locked into the top seed even if they lose their regular season finale and finish the year with a 15-2 record.
With homefield advantage secured for the playoffs, the Chiefs will have little motivation to risk injury to their star players when they host the Denver Broncos in Week 18. Granted, it would be a long break for starters to not play between Dec. 25 and Jan. 18/19, but coach Andy Reid has been hesitant to risk injuries to his starters in past seasons.
“The Chiefs will almost certainly rest their starters in Week 18 as part of a nearly month-long bye period that will help the team get healthy ahead of their next game in the Divisional round of the AFC playoffs,” John Dillon of Chiefs Wire told Broncos Wire this week.
“With so many starters nursing injury, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes and defensive lineman Chris Jones, it would be malpractice to send key players onto the field with the No. 1 seed already locked up.”
As Andrew Mason of DenverSports.com pointed out on Twitter/X, KC has been locked into its playoff seed four times under Reid. All four times, Reid rested his starting quarterback in the team’s regular season finale.
Kansas City has been locked into its playoff seed heading into the regular-season finale 4 times under Andy Reid:
2013: Rested starting QB (Alex Smith)
2017: Rested starting QB (Smith, gave Mahomes 1st start)
2020: Rested starting QB (Mahomes)
2023: Rested starting QB (Mahomes)— Andrew Mason (@MaseDenver) December 25, 2024
Other Chiefs stars such as defensive lineman Chris Jones and tight end Travis Kelce also seem likely to rest against Denver in Week 18.
The Broncos need one more win (or tie) to clinch a spot in the NFL playoffs. Denver could get the job done on Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals — making the Chiefs game irrelevant — but if the Broncos slip up in Week 17, facing Carson Wentz in Week 18 would (on paper) help Denver’s chances of getting into the postseason.
