Most of the Kansas City Chiefs starters got two weeks off from playing — Week 17 and the postseason bye week. Linebacker Anthony Hitchens got a little more rest than everyone else, and it wasn’t by design.
Hitchens was put on the reserve/COVID-19 list on December 22 — two days after the Chiefs’ Week 15 victory over the New Orleans Saints. He was finally welcomed back into the building last week and was officially activated this past Monday.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo made sure to note the importance of Hitchens’ return on Thursday. On Friday, Hitchens had his time in front of the media — and he shared how he felt ahead of his first game action in nearly a month.
“I feel good actually,” Hitchens remarked. “I took that time off and tried to work on something. I got my legs back. Every negative I get, I just try to flip it for a positive. I’m rolling, I feel good moving around, and I’m ready for Sunday.”
The Chiefs needed him to be ready for their Divisional round matchup against the Cleveland Browns. Their bulldozing attack on the ground is hard enough to stop with a healthy lineup, and the linebacker group is as banged up as they’ve been all season.
Starting linebacker Damien Wilson is back from a knee injury that held him out of three games down the stretch. Linebacker Ben Niemann was a full participant in practice this week while nursing a hamstring injury from Week 16. As good of news as it is to have those two back, rookie linebacker Willie Gay Jr. has already been ruled out for the game with the ankle injury he suffered in Week 17.
Gay’s emergence into the starting lineup down the stretch of the season was a promising sight — but now other linebackers will have to make up for the splash plays in run defense that Gay began to make more and more.
Niemann was the original starter at the position Gay began to play: the WILL linebacker in the base defense. He’ll return to that role out of necessity now — while presumably remaining as the sole linebacker in dime personnel.
With all the hamperings — and talks of too much rest — in mind, Hitchens is still impressed with his teammates’ preparation ahead of their first game of the postseason.
“Turn on the practice film man, we’re flying around,” Hitchens declared. “When we get a bye week, we’re not just sitting down and not doing anything. We’re all pros here. You can lose your wind in a week, or your conditioning and your strength. We’ve all been there — accidentally doing that before and it hurt. We all learned from that. Our bye weeks are not really bye weeks; we still work. It showed today and yesterday flying around — communication was crisp — and we’re ready to roll.”
Take Hitchens by his words, it sounds like this team has kept itself active and ready for game day. For his and the rest of the defense’s sake, he should hope there isn’t a slow start from the Chiefs. That’s one way the Browns could earn an advantage in this game — and stopping their offense proves a lot more difficult when they have a lead.