Chiefs’ Andy Reid has mastered postseason bye weeks

There was a time when incomes a postseason bye week would make Kansas City Chiefs followers cringe as an alternative of have a good time.

Previous to the arrival of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the franchise had earned 4 first-round byes within the 33 years for the reason that playoffs have been expanded from 10 groups to 12 in 1990 — every one among them resulting in a painfully-memorable Divisional spherical loss at Arrowhead Stadium.

However with Saturday’s 31-13 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Chiefs locked up their fourth bye week of the earlier 5 seasons — all of them with Mahomes because the staff’s beginning quarterback — doubling the overall that the franchise had earned since 1990.

Head coach Andy Reid wanted assist to get the Chiefs over what had felt like a curse. So following the staff’s house Divisional loss within the 2016 playoffs — one thing that had by no means occurred to Reid through the 14 seasons he was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles — the staff traded up within the first spherical to amass Mahomes within the NFL Draft.

After 31 years as an NFL coach — 24 of them as a head coach — Reid is extensively referred to as the grasp of bye-week preparation. Together with regular-season weeks off, he has a 27-4 file after a bye.

“That’s the trick to it,” defined Reid to reporters on Monday, “[it’s] the steadiness: how the gamers make the most of their free time — and coaches, for that matter. We’ve obtained to guarantee that we carry on high of the scheme stuff, too.

“We’ll see how all that works out — however yeah, I’ll inform you that’s the trick to it: to maintain the steadiness to the place the gamers keep sharp and coaches nonetheless can add a pair issues into [the guys’] combine and go from there.”

As soon as Reid’s bye-week technique was coupled with an elite quarterback, the benefit has appeared to multiply. Kansas Metropolis has gained all three Divisional video games that Mahomes has began after a bye.

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The 27-year-old quarterback — now the most-experienced quarterback within the AFC Playoffs — can see the impression of Reid’s method.

“I believe he has a terrific steadiness of the period of time he provides guys off and the quantity he will get guys in there to get them transferring and put together for the following week,” Mahomes advised reporters. “Then clearly, the coaches did a terrific job of sport planning. I’m certain this week they’ll sport plan like three or 4 totally different groups and attempt to get a great sport plan to the blokes early within the week.”

The week off comes over two months after the staff’s regular-season bye in Week 8 — the earliest of the Mahomes period. After enjoying for 10 consecutive weekends, this bye could be probably the most welcome in Kansas Metropolis’s latest previous.

Bodily relaxation is one profit — however further preparation time is one other. The Chiefs know they’ll play one among 4 opponents: the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Baltimore Ravens, and Miami Dolphins. Kansas Metropolis will host the bottom seed remaining from Wild Card weekend, which can most likely be the winner of the game between Jacksonville and Los Angeles. That likelihood is factored into the preparation that’s being finished this week.

“We’ll attempt to focus in on those that we expect that we have now an opportunity, most of all,” Reid confirmed. “But additionally cowl all of them. Whereas we have now time — I’m saying as a training workers — then we’ll slender that down for the gamers as we get them this week earlier than we truly know for subsequent week. However we’ll work on some issues that we have to work on.”

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Reid desires the gamers to really take day off, realizing the advantages they may have after they lock in and focus for the rest of the postseason run.

However let’s face it: it’s laborious to cease Mahomes from engaged on the sport plan.

“You don’t know for certain who you’re going to play — so what I’ll do is watch a sport or two from every staff that we have now a chance of enjoying,” Mahomes admitted. “Fortunately, two of the groups we’ve already performed this 12 months, so I’ve a basic sense of them already.

“You try this, you be sure to keep figuring out, keep transferring round — not simply sitting on the sofa all week — after which after we get able to go subsequent week, I simply attempt to be ready and able to roll.”

The additional relaxation has at all times helped Mahomes’ Chiefs within the subsequent matchup, however the staff has solely transformed one among its three postseason bye weeks right into a Super Bowl title. If the fourth try goes to lead to a second championship, the bye week’s benefit must final for greater than only one week.