–Linebacker Dee Ford didn’t practice Thursday as the Chiefs begin preparation for their Monday night showdown at Denver, but the club hopes to have Ford back quickly from a groin strain, head coach Andy Reid says.
“He’s actually doing very well right now,” Reid said. “We’re optimistic. We’ll just see how, it could be a day, it could be a couple of days but we’ll see how it goes.”
Ford exited Sunday’s 38-27 win against San Francisco late in the game with the injury and underwent a MRI on Monday. But Reid said the team doesn’t believe the injury is a long-term concern.
“I don’t think it is,” Reid said. “Not right now, that’s not what it looks like.”
–Patrick Mahomes and his penchant for escaping the pocket and extending plays provides highlight-reel throws, but it also can mean a lot of work for offensive linemen such as right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.
“Of course, you try to run around and protect his blind side so that he doesn’t get hit,” Duvernay-Tardif said. “The reward is there for sure. After that, the only thing you have to do is (kick) the extra point and then you are off for a little bit. It is totally worth it.”
Mahomes showed that ability in Week 3 against San Francisco. He escaped the pocket while scrambling 45 yards, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, before firing a 30-yard strike to receiver Chris Conley for a play that went down in the box score as a 4-yard touchdown pass.
“It’s pretty impressive what he is able to do with the ball (and) with his feet,” Duvernay-Tardif said. “You try to give him the best protection you can, but sometimes it is not going to be perfect. It is really good to see that he is able to make plays using his legs and using his vision and make a perfect throw to Conley in the end zone.”
Mahomes watched the play during film review this week and saw the play the same way he did on Sunday.
“Going through my read, they had pretty much dropped everybody into coverage and the offensive line was doing a good job of protecting me,” Mahomes said. “I scrambled to the left and there was nobody over there, so I scrambled around to the right and that’s where everybody was.”
The quarterback also says to expect more plays like that this year.
“Conley worked from the back side all the way across the end zone and so just for him to keep working and staying alive is something that we’ll need a lot of this season,” Mahomes said.
–Broncos linebacker Von Miller says this Chiefs offense looks much different from the one his team faced in Week 17 last year, but it’s a new addition to the receiving corps that stands out the most to him.
“They’ve got Sammy Watkins this year,” Miller said. “They’ve upgraded at the receiver position.”
The Chiefs have spread the ball evenly around their receiving corps with Travis Kelce leading the way with 16 catches and Tyreek Hill and Watkins tied with 14. But the Broncos believe it’s Watkins that Mahomes looks toward to get the ball to the most.
“It looks like Sammy is Patrick’s favorite target, they’ve got a little bit of chemistry there. He’s not getting balls like (Hill) or (Kelce), but it looks like he wants to go to Sammy most of the time.”
Head coach Vance Joseph said that pass-catching trio along with running back Kareem Hunt creates matchup headaches.
“It’s really difficult to get ready for a team like this along with trying to find the matchups first of all and then to match the matchups; that makes it hard facing this offense, Joseph said.”
Joseph says the Chiefs played it close to the vest in Week 17 with Mahomes last year with their offensive play-calling.
“But now every week it’s something different as far as concepts that you have to prepare for and that makes it difficult because they’re going to make you play vanilla and try to find the matchups and then you’ve got problems,” Joseph said. “He’s doing a great job of handling the total offense. He’s got great composure, he moves out of the pocket when he’s pressured, and, boy, he’s trying to make big plays and that makes him scary.”
BY THE NUMBERS: 16 – Touchdowns scored by the Chiefs, tied for the fifth-most scored by a team during the first three games of a season since 1940. Only one team – the 2015 Arizona Cardinals with 17 – scored more touchdowns during first three games during the past 50 NFL seasons.
