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Top rookies, MVP and Coach of the Year: NFL 2024 regular-season superlatives | The Athletic

Most clutch team: Kansas City Chiefs

Early-season injuries to Rashee Rice, Hollywood Brown and Isiah Pacheco made for an uphill climb for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. But a stingy defense and no shortage of late-game heroics by Mahomes translated into a streak of 16 straight wins in one-score games dating to last season. Now, the Chiefs have gotten healthy again, boast a 15-1 record and have locked up the top seed in the AFC.

NFL All-Pro team 2024: 50 best players, picks at every position | ESPN

Guard

Joe Thuney, Chiefs

Even before the Chiefs were forced to move their standout guard to left tackle out of desperation late in December, Thuney was being earmarked for an All-Pro spot. Playing in an offense with a quarterback who loves to extend plays, he has given up only 1.5 sacks all season, per NFL Next Gen Stats, and leads all guards in pass block win rate (98%). He has given up one quick pressure of Patrick Mahomes.

When aligned on the interior, Thuney has been blocking as part of a double-team just 42.3% of the time, which is the second-lowest rate for any guard. Moving to tackle only adds to his lore. After sitting out the final two games of the 2023 run to the Super Bowl because of a pectoral injury, one of the league’s iron men has played every single snap this season.

2024 NFL Week 18 QB Power Rankings: Baker Mayfield Keeps Climbing | The 33rd Team

6. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Skill Score: 9.78 | Production Score: 6.15 | Ranking Score: 7.97

The Chiefs have found a groove on offense. Against the Steelers, Patrick Mahomes averaged 2.25 seconds to throw, his quickest time of the season. That helps keep pressure away (17.9 percent of his dropbacks), and he found receivers in space.

This is the type of offense the Chiefs can build around to keep the down-to-down consistency while throwing in some deep shots in an effort to create explosive plays.

Broncos Sean Payton on Chiefs potentially resting starters in Week 18 | Chiefs Wire

“I told (the team) after the game, I said, ‘This is part of it,” said Payton. “We don’t get to choose. You guys have seen the big sign when you enter that locker room area. You have to keep fighting.”

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid hinted that multiple players could miss the Week 18 regular-season finale. However, Payton focused on the game plan rather than the players on the field.

“I think you have to approach it like you’re seeing starters at these positions. I think you’re looking at the scheme relative to the game plan and then planning on seeing the player you’re watching on film,” said Payton. “If someone else is in that spot, then so be it.”

NFL Week 17 Under Review: How Raheem Morris’s Mistake Altered the Playoff Landscape | The Ringer

We need the Bengals to get the last AFC wild-card spot.

Don’t make me beg! In one of the weirder seasons for a team in recent NFL history, the Bengals are somehow still alive for a playoff spot. The scenarios for the AFC’s 7-seed are pretty straightforward (ties not included):

The Broncos are in with a win over the Chiefs or losses by the Bengals and the Dolphins.

The Dolphins are in with a win over the Jets and a Broncos loss.

The Bengals are in with a win over the Steelers and a Broncos loss and a Dolphins loss.

The Broncos are still the heavy favorites to get in—they’ve got a 64.3 percent chance, according to ESPN’s projections. They are 9.5-point favorites against a Chiefs team that has the no. 1 seed locked up and could be starting Carson Wentz at quarterback and resting other starters. If Denver gets in, fine. They will have earned it. But the Broncos would be huge underdogs to no. 2 seed Buffalo in the wild-card round.

Prisco’s Week 18 NFL picks: Ravens, Buccaneers roll to clinch division titles, Lions edge Vikings for top seed | CBS Sports

Kansas City Chiefs (+11) at Denver Broncos

The Chiefs will be resting guys, so this doesn’t matter since they are locked as the top seed. But the Broncos need it to get into the playoffs. That’s pressure. The Chiefs still have a lot of good players and Carson Wentz is capable at quarterback. They keep it close.

Pick: Broncos 20, Chiefs 17

2025 NFL Mock Draft: Latest First-Round Predictions Entering Week 18 | The 33rd Team

Malaki Starks, Georgia

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 205 lbs.

Class: Junior

Fit: Kansas City has few immediate needs, so going with the top playmaker available only strengthens its outlook.

Malaki Starks can do it all at a high level, but safeties have been devalued in the NFL. Starks’ range and physical tackling prowess will endear him to coaches and fans alike, and he has the instincts to become a Pro Bowl starter.

Around the NFL

Saquon Barkley: I was down to play, OK with sitting too | NBC Sports

Barkley said that he spoke to Sirianni and told the coach that “I’m down” to play while adding that he’d do everything he could to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 rushing yards. Barkley called it an “opportunity to put my name in football history” and acknowledged that it might not present itself again in the future.

Barkley added that he also said he didn’t want to put anything about the team’s bigger aspirations at risk and that he is “OK” with being held out of the game.

“My family probably wanted it a little bit more than me,” Barkley said, via Eliot Shorr-Parks of WIP. “The most important thing is winning football games and winning playoffs. I’ve got a bigger goal in mind.”

In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride

Chiefs News: Carson Wentz not taking Sunday’s start for granted

Wentz has started 93 games since entering the league as a first-round selection of the Philadelphia Eagles — under one of Reid’s former assistants in head coach Doug Pederson — in the 2016 NFL Draft. Sunday will mark his first start since the last weekend of last season with the Los Angeles Rams.

Speaking before Wednesday’s practice, the veteran left no doubt what the opportunity means to him.

“I’m excited, honestly,” Wentz remarked. “I might not show it right now, but I think last year and then this year, again, you learn to not take these opportunities for granted. You play and start for however many years it was for me, and then you go and sit on the couch for half the season and then you kind of go back up last year, and I got one shot last year…It’s just not taking it for granted, having fun, and cutting it loose.”

While his start will not impact the Chiefs’ playoff fortunes, Wentz’s expectations for himself have not changed.

Social media to make you think

Man of the people ♥️#WPMOYChallenge + @tkelce pic.twitter.com/RfpbOR9G63

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 2, 2025