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The official word on whether the Kansas City Chiefs will rest their starters in Week 17 is ...
"We'll see."
That was the message on Monday from Andy Reid, who said he has yet to make up his mind on whether to play his starters in a meaningless Week 17 game. The Chiefs are locked into the No. 5 seed regardless of what happens in other games.
"I haven't made up my mind on how we're going to play it," Reid said. "I've done it a couple different ways, so we'll see how we do that. I'll evaluate all the different situations. I have sat people before, quite a few times actually and benefited from that so we'll look at everything and make sure I have that part evaluated."
For the record, I predicted Reid would say something along the lines of "we'll see". I also said this is a "gut feeling" type of situation, which Reid also said.
But history has been fairly clear on this subject.
#Chiefs' Reid has habit of sitting starters in meaningless game 16s before playoffs. Did it in Philly in '01, '04, '06 and 2010
— Randy Covitz (@randycovitz) December 23, 2013
And as the (other) AP's Dave Skretta pointed out, Reid's Eagles were 3-1 in the playoff games after those years.
"The obvious benefit is that you rest your guys," Reid said. "You get back feeling fresher than what you were in the end of the season."
A few years ago the issue of teams clinching the playoffs early and resting their starter late in the season, which resulted in preseason-like games, became a big issue. The NFL combated this by playing all division games in the final two weeks of the season. Yet the Chiefs are here, facing the same debate the NFL tried to stop.
My hunch, based on Reid's past history and based on what he said today, is that the Chiefs will rest their starters for some portion of Sunday's game in San Diego. How much is the question.
(H/T 810 WHB for playing the audio of Reid's presser)
