Here’s what Kansas City Chiefs fans should be rooting for this weekend as the Wild Card battles get underway.
They’re here. The 2022 NFL Playoffs are finally here. Forget the fact that the 2022 playoffs are played in 2023, something that still throws me off when googling past years’ results. If you thought you were getting off the hook from being glued to your TV this weekend, think again. Even without the Kansas City Chiefs playing, we as a Kingdom are obligated to consume as much football as we can, and believe me when I say there are certainly implications for the Chiefs when it comes to this weekend’s games.
Many are generating the narrative that we can pencil in the Bengals, Bills, and Chargers to advance to the divisional round. Not so fast! This is not Controllable Card weekend, it’s Wild Card weekend. Anything can happen. So if you haven’t taken down your Christmas decorations yet, go ahead and plan on leaving them up for a few more weeks. It’s permissible to remain festive until February.
It’s time for some real football to be played amongst real competitors with high stakes. I mean why do we even toil around in watching games that non-playoff guys like Aaron Rodgers and Derrick Henry are playing in when we can catch the real trophy studs like Skylar Thompson, Danny Dimes, and (hopefully, but hopefully not) Tyler Huntley under the lights of Super Wild Card weekend? Hey, upsets have happened before, and they’ll happen again, so don’t discount these guys because they’ve found themselves in moments that they may or may not be prepared for.
While some of the matchups this weekend have started to look more like David taking on Goliath than they do the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object, there’s still a chance for fireworks. Ultimately, you can predict all you want but the games will flow as they’re going to flow and there will be heroes at the end of each, some highly touted stars that you expect these things from, and some unsung heroes who step up in the right moment to get their teams one step closer to glory. Unfortunately for Chiefs Kingdom, there will be a bit of a football void in our lives with the Chiefs preparing for the Divisional Round with the bye that comes with the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
Obviously, most of us will be hyper-focused in on what happens in the three AFC Wild Card matchups this weekend. The Chiefs could potentially face off with four of the six teams in action this week: the Jaguars, the Chargers, the Ravens, or the Dolphins. That makes for quite the spread in opponent game-planning for Kansas City, and will inevitably bring varying levels of confidence heading into the divisional round for the fanbase. Two of the four teams listed the Chiefs are 3-0 against this season, and the other two are Cincinnati and Buffalo respectively. To say the Chiefs have skin in the game around these outcomes is an understatement, fortunately for the team and for the fans, K.C. will get to sit in waiting while the other 6 teams battle for 3 positions in the divisional round.
Sitting and waiting while our team gets its collective mind right for a playoff run shouldn’t stop us from having some rooting interest in this weekend’s games. Let’s take a look at what scenarios, outcomes, and players Chiefs fans should be pulling for in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.