Tomorrow night the Seattle Seahawks will be playing their second preseason game of the year, hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at Lumen Field. Ordinarily this would be a star-studded, prime-time kind of affair. However, it’s only a preseason game – and when you’ve been to 26 straight Super Bowls like the Chiefs have you have much more to lose than to gain playing starters in August.
And so the buzz coming out of Chiefs training camp is that head coach Andy Reid will likely not be playing Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones or the rest of his starters against Seattle.
From Chiefs camp: After hearing coach Andy Reid @BlairKerkhoff of @KCStar says Kansas City's starters such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones likely won't play Friday at #Seahawks.
Gardner Minshew was QB1 in Chiefs practice today.
— Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) August 13, 2025
It would have been nice to see how the Seahawks defense matched up against Mahomes and company. However, it’s been a long time since KC’s offense was the explosive juggernaut it was when their AFC dynasty began. As defenses have gone ultra-conservative against Mahomes, he’s had little choice but to dink and dunk on most possessions – and he’s done it far better than anyone ever has.
By contrast, Chiefs backup Gardner Minshew has neither dinked nor dunked in his life – and he’ll look to throw aggressively against Seattle’s defense as he always does.
What really makes the Chiefs go these days is Steve Spagnuolo’s lethal defense, which has ranked in among the top five teams in fewest points allowed each of the last two seasons.
Even though we won’t get to see that unit at full strength either, it sounds like head coach Mike Macdonald wants to get Sam Darnold and his first-team offense at least a little bit of action before the regular season begins. Macdonald is expected to play Darnold, Cooper Kupp and the rest of his starters.
