Chiefs headlines for Tuesday, December 31

The latest

NFL Team Needs: Prioritizing Every Roster’s Biggest Weaknesses Before Week 18 | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report

Move to Make Now: Rest the starters

One of the hardest parts of winning back-to-back championships is fighting attrition. The 49ers are a prime example of how multiple lengthy postseason runs can eventually wear a team down.

The Chiefs have already done the hard work of earning the No. 1 seed. This week they should be resting their most prominent and veteran starters. They get the additional rest of the bye week, but it would be best to have players like Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones at full strength.

2025 Free Agency: LB E.J. Speed, Indianapolis Colts

The Chiefs should be prepared to move on without Nick Bolton next season. Maybe they are able to re-sign him, but they are already shelling out cash for multiple stars and Trey Smith is a pending free agent. Bolton is a talented linebacker, but this is a team that had to trade away L’Jarius Sneed last offseason. Bolton isn’t more valuable than he was.

The Chiefs could draft a linebacker to replace Bolton, but expecting a rookie to start in Year 1 is always a little dangerous. They should be looking at cheap veteran linebackers who could be a fallback plan. E.J. Speed would be ideal. The 29-year-old has been reliable in the middle of the Colts defense and he may be hungry to play on a contender.

1 Chiefs

Analyst’s Take

The Chiefs have been winning nailbiter after nailbiter, giving some pause as to whether Kansas City could make it to a third consecutive Super Bowl. But the team we saw on Christmas was dominant on both sides of the ball, with Patrick Mahomes topping 300 passing yards and the defense putting the clamps on the Seahawks. The Chiefs aren’t unbeatable. But when they play like they did in Week 17, Kansas City is awfully close. — Davenport

Kansas City Chiefs

Rest up. They’re reportedly set to sit starters in Week 18 before also enjoying a first-round playoff bye, but it’s warranted. Patrick Mahomes and Co. are already inevitable, but charged up, they could be dangerous.

Can you imagine if Brett Veach made this move?!

Where do you expect Micah Parsons to be next season? 📍 pic.twitter.com/qSY0DetD0W

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) December 30, 2024

Which team has the best front office in ‘big four’ leagues? Execs vote on their peers | The Athletic

8. Kansas City Chiefs

Total points: 174 (13 first-place votes)

Owner: Clark Hunt

General manager: Brett Veach

Head coach: Andy Reid

Andy Reid and Brett Veach are a formidable 1-2 punch for the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. Veach, who began his career as a coaching intern under Reid with Philadelphia in 2004, followed his mentor to Kansas City. Veach played a significant role in the decision to draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017 (under then-GM John Dorsey, whom he succeeded weeks after that draft). Veach rebuilt the offensive line and armed defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo with a talented young defense that ranked among the top 10 in scoring defense four of the past five years.

“Veach grew up around Andy, so I think there is a very clear vision on what types of players they’re looking for and what works in their system,” an executive said. “Along with the winning comes continuity, and I think that staff as a whole has a very strong understanding of what works there. I think Veach and (assistant general manager Mike) Borgonzi are good evaluators. They have an eye for talent along with an understanding of what plays in the league.”

Around the NFL

Ex-Jets HC Rex Ryan expected to interview for New York opening | NFL.com

Rex Ryan has been out of the NFL since the final days of 2016. He might get a chance to return soon, perhaps to a place he knows quite well.

Ryan is expected to interview for the New York Jets’ head coaching position, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday.

Ryan is the second former head coach reported to be in line for an interview with New York, joining Ron Rivera.

Though current NFL assistants cannot interview until the end of the regular season, that doesn’t apply to Ryan and Rivera, both currently on-air analysts.

Ryan, 62, spent six years as New York’s head coach from 2009-2014, leading the Jets to two winning seasons and two AFC Championship Game appearances in his first two years before sliding back toward a .500-or-worse run from 2011 to 2014. He left the Jets with a 46-50 regular-season record and a 4-2 playoff record, then found work with the Buffalo Bills for two seasons, posting a 15-16 record between 2015 and 2016 before he was fired.

Monday Night Football: Kerby Joseph, Jared Goff carry Lions to 40-34 win over 49ers | NBC Sports

The game was meaningless for both teams with the 49ers already eliminated from playoff contention and the Lions set for a showdown against the Vikings on Sunday Night Football to decide the NFC North title and the No. 1 seed in the NFC. Still, it was one of the more entertaining games of Week 17 as the Lions moved to 14-2, and the 49ers fell to 6-10.

Lions coach Dan Campbell said his team would play to win despite the circumstances, and they did.

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

5 reasons to believe the Chiefs will three-peat in 2024

2. The Chiefs’ success isn’t built on luck

Only a fool would deny that luck has played a role in an NFL team’s 15-1 record. As the noted philosopher Joe Montana often told his followers, “The ball is shaped weird. Sometimes it bounces funny.” But it’s flat-out wrong to suggest that Kansas City’s record has all been built on lucky bounces.

Sure… Matthew Wright’s 31-yard field goal attempt that bounced off the left upright and over the crossbar to defeat the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14 was lucky. But no luck was involved in Kansas City blocking the Denver Broncos’ last-second field goal attempt in Week 10. That was an excellent special teams play the Chiefs had planned after finding a weakness in the Broncos’ field goal attempts.

Of course… it was lucky for Kansas City that the Las Vegas Raiders chose a third-and-3 play with 14 seconds left in their Week 13 matchup for the center and quarterback to get their wires crossed and put a shotgun snap on the ground. But there was nothing lucky about Chiefs’ linebacker Nick Bolton breaking into the backfield to recover the loose ball.

These arguments only focus on the team’s good luck. The Chiefs have had plenty of bad luck, too. Losing wide receiver Hollywood Brown — their top free agent acquisition — on the first offensive snap of the preseason certainly counts as bad luck. So does losing Rashee Rice to a “friendly fire” injury in Week 4, Jaylen Watson in Week 6 and newly-signed left tackle D.J. Humphries in his first game with the team.

So yes… the Chiefs have benefited from some good luck. But they have had to fight off their share of bad luck, too. That’s what all NFL teams do. Championship teams just do it better.

Social media to make you think

The People saying the Chiefs don’t want to play the Bengals make no sense

Presented by @DraftKings #Dkpartner pic.twitter.com/ll3BG7Kwjk

— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) December 30, 2024