Patrick Mahomes talks about bye week, playoff preparation and facing Baker Mayfield

Patrick Mahomes spoke to reporters this week about the challenge of facing the Cleveland Browns in the NFL playoffs.

As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to face the Cleveland Browns this week in their playoff opener in the NFL’s Divisional Round, it also means players are updating the media on how they spent the bye week. For star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, it was not only business as usual in terms of preparation and workouts but it was also a chance to get a head start on film work to see what he could learn about the Browns defense.

On Sunday, the Chiefs will host Cleveland after they upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round, and Mahomes told reporters that he already had a notebook handy after researching Browns game film in the previous week.

"“Right when the bye week started and we knew who the seeds were for the seven, six, five, four, all those seeds that we could possibly play, I took a day where I watched each team—about four or five games of each team—and just tried to get a general feel of what the defense is presenting, what offenses are doing to try to attack them from different teams and different offenses. So I had a day’s worth of film on the Browns, so whenever we found that out, I was able to look back at that, look at my notes and try to see how that presents to us.”"

Mahomes detailed his playoff prep as a more intense version of what he would do to get ready for a regular season game. The process is already in place, but knowing everything rides on this single performance enhances the importance of it all.

"“I think you just take your intensity up a level. It’s still the same preparation. You just dive deeper into the film study, dive deeper into the breakdowns and the different ways you can go out there and have success against a defense. Just taking it to another level would be the thing.”"

For the last two weeks or more, Mahomes has been able to rest more than normal as Chiefs head coach Andy Reid decided to rest his starters for the full Week 17 contest against the Los Angeles Chargers—a season-ending loss at home—before also earning a first-round bye as the top team in the AFC with a final regular season record of 14-2. However, Mahomes put to rest any worries about rust considering that he’s remained on schedule with workouts and the like.

"“I stayed on top of everything. I practiced as much as I could practice getting reps in, making sure I get back to the fundamentals of the footwork and stuff like that and continue to work out and prepare myself. We didn’t start the way we wanted to last year when we came off the bye, so I wanted to make sure we do a better job of starting a little bit faster and try not to put ourselves in that deficit.”"

As for his opponent on Sunday, Mahomes says he’s known Baker Mayfield, the Browns starting quarterback, since before he was even enrolled at Texas Tech. The two quarterbacks went on to be Big 12 stars and now they face off in another battle—likely not for the last time.

"“It’s cool to be able to play against him in such a big game in the playoffs and everything like that. Known him for a long time since I was a senior in high school. To be able to play on this stage is gonna be special. He went to Oklahoma and I went to Texas Tech, so he got the better of me in college so I’ll try to do my best to win in the NFL.”"

The Chiefs and Browns will kick things off at 2:05 p.m. C.T. on Sunday, January 17.