John Dorsey: Kansas City Chiefs schedule is “best” in five years

Kansas City Chiefs general manager John Dorsey says the Chiefs regular season schedule is the “best” since he first arrived in 2013.

When the NFL revealed their schedule late on Thursday evening, Kansas City Chiefs general manager John Dorsey liked what he saw. From the bye week to the layout to the final stretch, Dorsey saw the “best” schedule since he first arrived in 2013 and even called Clark Hunt to tell him as much.

It’s an interesting note from Dorsey given that the Chiefs face one of the toughest overall schedules in the NFL this year. Their strength of schedule ranks among the most difficult in the league by any metric, including No. 2 overall here, second only to the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs open the season against the New England Patriots and face the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys and the entire AFC West twice. However don’t try to tell Dorsey otherwise.

"I like three home games in December. I love that. I hope the fans will love that too. There’s nothing better than having three out of the four last games here. I think the bye week is in the perfect position from my standpoint. I also like that this year, we don’t have two back-to-back road games. If you look at the schedule, it’s back-and-forth with our only consecutive road weeks separated with the bye week."

Dorsey brings up some good points. Having a bye week near the beginning of the second half of the season allows for a nice rest stop, so to speak, for players over the long haul of a season. For a team with playoff hopes, the season looms even longer. Depth is important, but so are chances to rest. The team’s head athletic trainer, Rick Burkholder, also threw this great fact on Twitter.

So while the difficulty is very high, the reality is that the layout itself is perfect. The Chiefs will be honing their craft against the NFL’s best while also having a good back and forth of space to rest, road vs. home games and a nice stretch in front of fans when it counts the most.