The Kansas City Chiefs come to town and play the Denver Broncos in Week 18. Could the Chiefs lay down in this game and hand Denver the victory? You might think this is some insane, goofy logic, but consider this, first and foremost:
An important note to remember with no official word yet from KC on who will play in Denver.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) December 30, 2024
Andy Reid, since 2017, has never played his starters with a playoff seed locked in.
And the strategy seems to have worked out just fine.
That said, Carson Wentz could be fun.
We already know that Chiefs' QB Patrick Mahomes is not playing in this game, so the Broncos will not have to deal with him. They have beaten Mahomes just one time since he came into the NFL in 2017. Anyway, the Chiefs have a reputation and trend of doing this when they have clinched a seed in the playoffs.
For them, Week 18 means absolutely nothing. It does not impact their AFC seeding. It does not give them any sort of advantage or anything like that. This game for the Chiefs means nothing.
N-o-t-h-i-n-g.
So you have to ask yourselves just how many starters they plan on resting. Well, I would not be shocked to see names like Travis Kelce, Hollywood Brown, Joe Thuney, Isiah Pacheco, Chris Jones, and several others not suit up for this game.
So let's take this a step further; does it benefit the Chiefs for the playoffs if they let the Denver Broncos win? Well, the answer could be a resounding yes. Think back to the 2021 AFC Championship Game; the only active team to have beaten Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the postseason was Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals back in 2021.
The other two losses came at the hands of Tom Brady. And I am not sure I need to elaborate as to why the Chiefs would probably prefer the Broncos in the playoffs over the Bengals. The Bengals have done into Arrowhead and beaten the Chiefs. The Broncos have not done that in the Mahomes era.
Furthermore, by essentially laying down in this game, the Broncos win and also get a lower first-round draft pick in 2025, so that could be another way that this game could benefit the Chiefs, as their division rival is picking that much lower in the NFL Draft.
Continuing. on, why would the Chiefs even try in this game? They are trying to become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a row, so why would they show anything? If you ask me, we could see a very vanilla, plain-Jane gameplan from the Chiefs on both sides of the ball. Again, remember, this game means nothing to them.
One of their key players suffering a major injury in a meaningless game would be the silliest of things to happen for them. When you look at all the ways that a loss in Week 18 benefits them, it would not shock me to see the Chiefs essentially hand this game to the Denver Broncos.
Perhaps I am totally wrong, but the reasons for my argument here outweigh the reasons against it.