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NFL Team Needs: Prioritizing Every Roster’s Biggest Weaknesses Before Week 12 | Bleacher Report

Move to Make Now: Scale Back Travis Kelce’s Workload

The Bills did a really nice job of keeping Travis Kelce in check. He ended the game with just two receptions for eight yards on four targets. Last year, Kelce only played 77 percent of the team’s snaps and missed two games with injury. It ended up working out, as he played his best football in the playoffs.

This year, he’s back to playing 82 percent of the team’s snaps—his highest share since 2021. Now that the undefeated season is out of reach, the Chiefs should look to rest their 35-year-old tight end a bit more to ensure he’s at his best when it matters.

FL Sunday awards: Josh Allen stops Patrick Mahomes, Taysom Hill takes over, Justin Herbert joins MVP race and Ben Johnson shines in latest audition | Sky Sports

It is why he is MVP. Nobody in the league is currently elevating their offense or strapping a team to their back in the same defining manner as Allen. Nobody in the league rivals his cocktail of cannon-armed destruction and bulldozing rushing ferocity, one of the NFL’s most gifted passers also representing his team’s most potent ground threat. He is the ultimate problem for even the most savvy defensive minds like that of Spagnuolo.

“The Josh Allen experience, with this magnitude, has been phenomenal, man,” said wide receiver Amari Cooper. “He’s a great player. The old adage, big-time players make big-time plays in big-time situations, and that’s exactly what he did.”

Chiefs’ first loss could actually help them, and what else we learned in Week 11 | FOX Sports

Kansas City Chiefs: The undefeated season is over, and I think that’s a good thing. Look at the 2007 Patriots as an example. They infamously lost the Super Bowl after having a target on their back near the end of the regular season and getting absolutely no rest. The worst teams in the NFL were playing brilliantly against the Patriots, because no one wanted New England to go undefeated. It was a brutal run for the Patriots, and it seemed to fatigue the team — just battling tooth and nail for every win. That would have been the vicious road for Kansas City. I would go so far as to say that this actually makes their Super Bowl odds better. The intellectual and physical grind for perfection is over. Now they can focus on the prize that really matters: the three-peat.

NFL Week 11 grades: Bills earn high mark for huge win over Chiefs, Steelers get ‘B’ for beating Ravens | CBS Sports

B- Chiefs

The undefeated season had to end at some point, and it finally happened here in a game where the Chiefs were simply outplayed. Patrick Mahomes threw an interception on his first pass of the game and that was a sign of things to come on a day where he threw for just 196 yards. The Chiefs’ normally stout defense struggled to slow down Josh Allen, who totaled 317 yards and two touchdowns. No one one wants to lose, but this could end up being for the best since the Chiefs now won’t have to deal with the pressure that comes from trying to stay undefeated. They’re still in the driver’s seat to get the No. 1 seed in the AFC and that’s the ultimate goal when it comes to the regular season.

Reassessing AFC contenders: Bills the best? How dangerous are the Steelers? Sando’s Pick Six | The Athletic

• Chiefs: The Chiefs were going to lose at some point, and there was a great chance that time would come Sunday. The Bills were favored.

The path to a third consecutive Super Bowl victory is still there. My prescription for the Chiefs: adding a healthy Isiah Pacheco to the offensive backfield next week while continuing to develop rookie receiver Xavier Worthy, who for the second time in three weeks failed to get his second foot down inbounds on what should have been a rather routine big play.

Do NOT overreact to these five NFL developments from Week 11; Saquon Barkley enters MVP race | NFL.com

1) Kansas City’s hopes for earning the top seed in the AFC playoffs taking a hit. News flash: The Chiefs weren’t going to go undefeated this season. They were playing too many one-score games, and it was only a matter of time before that caught up with them, as it did in Sunday’s 30-21 loss at Buffalo. The Chiefs, now 9-1, still have a one-game lead in the race for that AFC first-round bye, but the 9-2 Bills own the crucial tiebreaker in the event both teams end up with the same record. The 8-2 Steelers are a player in this conversation, as well. But here’s the hard reality: The Chiefs don’t need the top seed to return to the Super Bowl and chase a three-peat. They had to play two road games in the playoffs last season, and they found ways to win those contests in Buffalo and in Baltimore. The takeaway from that accomplishment is that it doesn’t matter where the Chiefs play or how they’re seeded when the playoffs begin. What is crucial is that opponents bring the same mindset that the Bills brought to their win on Sunday. Buffalo wasn’t content to create an opportunity where they could have a supposedly safe lead late in the fourth quarter with Patrick Mahomes having one more shot at winning the game. Instead, it gave the ball to Josh Allen on fourth-and-2 and told him to win the dang thing. That’s how you beat the Chiefs — not by hoping for the best-case scenarios when the playoffs begin. They’re going to be a house favorite once again. The only question is whether another AFC team has the nerve and the talent to do what Buffalo just did come tourney time.

1st & 10 Week 11: Bills Beat Chiefs, Steelers Defense, Justin Herbert & More | The 33rd Team

When pressured, Allen averaged 0.28 EPA per play and did not take a sack, though he did throw an interception. Buffalo always looked like it had a plan on offense

The Bills’ passing game has slowly morphed into a cohesive unit, with the receivers finding their roles. Keon Coleman was still out in this game, but Amari Cooper returned to the lineup. His presence gives Buffalo something they did not have — the ability to separate on the outside and win 1-on-1s.

Cooper had a 30-yard catch on a third-and-6 in the first quarter. Buffalo used motion and middle-of-the-field routes from Dawson Knox and Khalil Shakir to keep the sideline clear for Cooper, who got behind cornerback Nazeeh Johnson.

Around the NFL

Daniel Jones benched as Giants change QBs, signal shift in 2025 | USA Today

The Giants have decided to bench quarterback Daniel Jones for Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming out of the bye, the team announced Monday. Tommy DeVito will take over and Drew Lock will serve as the backup. Jones, who has started 69 of the 70 NFL games he’s played in his career, will be the emergency option as a third-stringer.

“After evaluating a bunch of things and looking a lot of tape – and being around Tommy last year, where he created a little bit of a spark for us – that’s the reason we’re going with Tommy,” Daboll said in a news conference, adding that he believed the move was necessary.

Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys ‘didn’t anticipate’ 3-7 record | ESPN

“We won one game my first year,” Jones said after the Cowboys’ 34-10 loss to the Houston Texans that dropped Dallas to 3-7 on the year. “One. And so have we had rough seasons? Yes. Yeah, I’ve been around. Certainly we have. And we’ve had other tough years. And this one, we didn’t anticipate the record. And the way we’re playing right now, we wouldn’t have anticipated that. But, not, this isn’t — y’all have heard me tell these old stories until you’re sick — but not, you stay in this league long enough, you’ll have times like this.”

The 1989 Cowboys, however, were not considered one of the best teams in the NFC at the start of that season. Neither were the teams that finished 5-11 three straight years from 2000-02. In 2010, Jones made the only in-season coaching change of his tenure, replacing Wade Phillips with Jason Garrett after a 1-7 start to the season. In 2015, the Cowboys finished 4-12.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Chiefs-Bills: 5 things we learned in Week 11 loss

4. This is probably as bad as things will get

While injuries have been one of the season’s major narratives, a good number of reinforcements are on the way. Wide receiver Juju Smith-Schuster has returned. Running back Isiah Pacheco and defensive end Charles Omenihu have both been designated to return from the Reserve/Injured list.

It remains to be seen if any of the Chiefs’ other injured players will return in time for the postseason — but even if they don’t, these three players should be able to make a difference.

Besides… we know Kansas City doesn’t show all of its cards to teams it could see again — and from here on out, Buffalo is the best AFC team the Chiefs will face.

When you roll all of this up into a football burrito, this could easily be as bad as it gets.

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