Let's play pretend for just a second.
By now we know the Kansas City Chiefs are going to rest multiple starters on Sunday in their scheduled Week 18 game against the Denver Broncos to take place at Mile High. For football fans hoping to catch a great competitive game with some of the game's biggest stars, it's a missed opportunity since Patrick Mahomes has already been declared out and others like Travis Kelce and Chris Jones will likely sit on the bench as well.
The Chiefs are in rest mode for the next couple of weeks after sewn up the top seed in the conference with a 15-1 record through 16 contests. They now have an insurmountable lead in the AFC, which gives them home-field advantage and a first-round bye.
In the rare instance that the Broncos are able to pull off a major upset, the Chiefs' call to rest starters could have its advantages.
Since there's little for Andy Reid's roster to play for—other than the satisfaction of beating a rival like the Broncos and/or personal pride—it makes sense for the head coach to rest several of the Chiefs' best players in order to make sure the core stays healthy for the postseason.
What this means is that the Denver Broncos are going to have a much easier time of things against Kansas City in Week 18 than they normally would have. And that difference coudl be enough to give them the victory. With a win would come the team's first playoff berth since 2015.
While the Chiefs are primarily resting players in order to avoid any unnecessary injuries in a meaningless game, there are other advantages, however, to playing a vanilla game with backups and role players in Denver on Sunday. That's because it's possible the Chiefs could face Denver one more time before this season is officially over.
Yes, it's very much a longshot, but the Broncos are likely going to head to Buffalo with a win on Sunday as the No. 7 overall seed in the conference. If that's the case, they'll face the Bills as major underdogs. With an upset in Buffalo, however, the Broncos would be on a collision course with another date at Arrowhead to face the Chiefs for the third time in 2024-25.
The Chiefs won the first meeting with Bo Nix at midseason, but the team now looks very different near season's end. Isiah Pacheco is back and DeAndre Hopkins has found his footing. Hollywood Brown has returned from injury and JuJu Smith-Schuster is also healthy. D.J. Humphries is likely going to play as well, and this is just on the offensive side.
Defensively, the Chiefs have figured things out in the secondary after losing Jaylen Watson and Charles Omenihu has given a significant boost to the entire pass rush. That's allowed George Karlaftis to take a significant step forward in the second half of the year.
Essentially, the Chiefs already won the first meeting and have many reasons to feel even better about facing Denver a third time with so many different players available to them. By resting their starters in Week 18, Denver will still have no idea what will await them if they face K.C. in the postseason because they won't even get a late-season glimpse on Sunday. The Chiefs will be holding their cards close to the proverbial vest in a game that means nothing to them in terms of outcome.
Resting their starters is the right call for the Chiefs no matter who they face down the road, but it might yield surprising dividends if they just happen to face the Broncos a third time this season.