Justin Houston didn’t practice at all last week but somehow I still expected him to play. Then came the weekend reports that the Chiefs would hold him out. I was a little surprised because Andy Reid seemed confident earlier in the week that Houston would play. Any surprises this late in the season are not good. The Chiefs could be in a playoff game less than two weeks from now.
As we enter Week 17, is there any concern that Houston could miss the playoffs?
“I think we just take it day by day and we just see,” Andy Reid said Monday via the Chiefs in the least reassuring way possible. “He felt a little bit better yesterday than he did the day before. He felt like things were getting better. I think that’s what we’re going on here. I know how these things work. I’ve been there and I know it. I think it’s just a matter of calming down a little bit. I think if we just take it day by day we’ll be good to go.”
Anything other than a “No, we’re not concerned” is a concerning answering to me. It sounds like the Chiefs don’t know like they didn’t know how that swelling last week would progress. There is that unknown factor here.
The question now becomes how you manage it. Would sitting Houston this week be the move? Do the Chiefs really need that first round bye now to give him another week? There’s going to be a strategy here over the next week plus.