Could we see Patrick Mahomes in week 17?
By Kody Latham
The Kansas City Chiefs could lock up their playoff spot this week with a win against Miami. Will Big Red decide to rest his starters and let Patrick Mahomes play?
It feels good to wake up today feeling good after a Kansas City Chiefs win. After back-to-back losses for multiple weeks, a two-game win streak feels great. The Chiefs are coming together at the right time and getting hot headed into the playoffs. If the Chiefs win this week against the Miami Dolphins, they lock in their spot as the fourth seed in the playoffs and will be guaranteed a home game in the Wild Card round.
With a win this week, there would also be no way to change their seeding, which means the week 17 game in this case would be meaningless. It would then be a good time to rest our starters since we won’t have a bye week in the playoffs. All of which means it is a perfect chance to see our shiny new quarterback Patrick Mahomes play in an actual game in 2017. Andy Reid has already shown a tendency to let the backups play in meaningless games, having done so in 2013 against the San Diego Chargers.
Having Patrick Mahomes play in the last game of the season would be a good chance for the coaching staff to see how much Mahomes has retained after having a full season essentially in an NFL playbook before he most likely takes the reins of the team next year. Seeing how he fares against top corners Aquib Talib and Chris Harris Jr., with our backups as his primary targets in a hostile environment, would be great for fans to see as well.
The Chiefs could take the cautious route though and decide not to let Mahomes play and instead showcase Tyler Bray. He is in the last year of his contract, and they could also use the game as a barometer to see if they want to continue to keep him on the roster or let him walk during the upcoming offseason. Whoever they decide to start that week, let’s hope that the Chiefs take care of business this week so that we can go ahead and lock up our playoff spot.