Chiefs vs. Bills: Sammy Watkins, Le’Veon Bell among inactives for Kansas City

The Kansas City Chiefs will be without two dangerous offensive options when they take the field against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday evening in the 2020 AFC Championship. Both wide receiver Sammy Watkins and running back Le’Veon Bell are out and have been designated as inactive for the big game.

Watkins came into the game practicing earlier this week, bringing hope that he might be able to return after missing several weeks with a calf injury. The Chiefs were able to rest him in Week 17 and an extra bye week allowed other players to rest and recuperate enough to return. However, Watkins was also held out of the Divisional Round against the Cleveland Browns.

Now the Chiefs have to hope to pull out a win in the AFC Championship so that Watkins has two more weeks to potentially get healthy for Super Bowl LV.

As for Bell, the Chiefs kept him out of last week for most of the game as well despite the fact he was active. Darrel Williams was the lead back for Kansas City instead with Clyde Edwards-Helaire inactive last Sunday. This week, however, Edwards-Helaire is back giving the Chiefs a significant boost in the backfield even without Bell there.

The Chiefs still have plenty of dynamic weapons on offense, and the return of Edwards-Helaire will help, but the Bills are a solid team and the loss of both Watkins and Bell to injury could come into play as the Bills defense keys in on Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce especially.

Here’s a full list of the Chiefs inactive players for Sunday night.

• WR Sammy Watkins
• RB Le’Veon Bell
• OL Yasir Durant
• LB Willie Gay
• CB BoPete Keyes
• DT Khalen Saunders
• DE Tim Ward