How the Chiefs plan to attack the playoff bye week

Thanks to unforeseen circumstances, the Kansas City Chiefs suddenly have found themselves with a week off. So how will they spend it?

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is giving the players Tuesday and Wednesday off before reconvening on Thursday.

”We’ll mix it up as we go,” said Reid. “They’ll have a couple of days on, then a day off and that type of thing. Very similar to last year in how we did it there. This is a Sunday-to-Sunday type of game situation, as opposed to last year.”

Because the Chiefs won’t know their opponent until Saturday night, the workouts on Thursday and Friday will be about fundamentals, per Reid.

“We’ll actually put the pads on and work fundamentals,” said Reid. “It gives us an opportunity for the ones to work against the ones and get some work there. Short and sweet, but it gives the guys the opportunity to get some good fundamental work in, which you need to kind of re-tool as you get to the end here. We’ll do that.”

The Chiefs had a bye week last season during quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ first year as Kansas City’s starter. Looking back to that week last year, Mahomes is prioritizing staying focused this season.

“Coach Reid does a good job of preparing us by giving us the right amount of time off, but at the same time keeping us in the building and keeping us preparing for whoever we get to play,” said Mahomes. “I think the biggest thing about this week is making sure you’re fundamentally at the right point. As seasons go on, you start losing some fundamentals there at the end. So, we kind of go back, look at ourselves and the fundamentals and prepare ourselves, so that whoever we get to play we’re ready with how we prepared ourselves and prepared against other teams.”

The No. 4-seeded Houston Texans will host the No. 5-seeded Buffalo Bills on Saturday afternoon at 3:35 p.m. Arrowhead Time. The No. 3-seeded New England Patriots will then host the No. 6-seeded Tennessee Titans at 7:15 p.m. Arrowhead Time.

With the Chiefs being the No. 2 seed, they can’t play the Titans next week; their opponent will be the Texans, Bills or Patriots.

“We know a couple of them — we know Houston and New England,” added Reid. “The one team that we don’t know is Buffalo, as well as the other two. Obviously, New England, if they win, would be the seed that we would play. But we’ll go back and look at all of them and make sure that we have a pretty good grasp on all of them.”

In the meantime, Mahomes intends to watch film on all three teams this week.

“Other than the Bills, we’ve played New England and the Texans, so we kind of have that experience obviously,” said Mahomes. “With that, you kind of go back and watch those games and watch a little bit of the Bills at the same time. You really focus on yourself mostly and focus on preparing yourself that way.”

Come Saturday night, the Chiefs will know their opponent.

“We have the players coming in on Sunday just for a quick blast,” added Reid. “We’ll at least have a heads up on who we play and what direction we need to go there.”