Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke to the media for nearly 10 minutes on Monday as his team turns its attention to the Green Bay Packers and Sunday Night Football.
As to be expected, most of the questions asked of the head coach surrounded the health of starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes suffered a patellar (kneecap) dislocation in the Chiefs’ 30-6 win over the Denver Broncos on Thursday night.
Perhaps most interestingly, Reid never ruled Mahomes out for Sunday throughout the entire press conference.
“We’re going to just see how he does,” said Reid, when asked specifically about Mahomes playing on Sunday night. “I’d probably say it would be a stretch for him to get there, but he’s working hard and from the information that we’ve had to this point, he’s doing what he can do and we’ll just see — see how it goes, but we’re going to get Matt (Moore) ready to go, on the other hand.”
A Sunday report from ESPN said that Mahomes could return to the team in “less than three weeks,” but Reid was unwilling to commit to any timeline on Monday.
“All these guys are different — the way they do it,” said Reid about those who have suffered the patellar injury. “I don’t think you can put a timeline on this thing. I think you just go and you take it — you go off how he feels and what the doctors say and go with it. I don’t think there is a set time though. I know people want a time. I don’t think you can do that with this injury.”
Chiefs head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder told reporters that Mahomes is already doing extensive pool therapy and is progressing nicely. As for Sunday night, it looks like the Chiefs will play Moore, who last started in late November of 2017. Moore was 10 of 19 for 117 yards and a touchdown in relief against the Denver Broncos.
This means motion, light strengthening, even jogging already in a Aquatic rehab pool with a treadmill. @ArrowheadPride https://t.co/uBxJxROqi3
— Aaron Borgmann (@RehabAllStar) October 21, 2019
“We have a lot of confidence in Matt, ” said Reid. “Just having known him for a short period of time, really, but also knowing what he’s done when he’s had opportunities to play, so he’ll get himself ready to go, which he does every week — he’s relentless with that, even when Patrick was healthy there. He spent a lot of time getting himself ready to go.”
In 55 career games, Moore is 28-27, with a 81.2 passer rating. He’s thrown for 46 career touchdowns and 36 interceptions. Reid said on Friday the Chiefs would make slight alterations to their game plan to accommodate Moore’s strengths and weaknesses.
“He works extremely hard,” said Reid of the 35-year-old. “He doesn’t get a lot of reps in practice, so he stands in the back and goes through all the different motions as if he’s actually playing there, and so as well as you can be prepared, he does that without being the starter.”
This week, he is.