Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes stepped onto the practice field Wednesday, the initial on-field installation of a game plan to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Amid a COVID-19 outbreak within the team over the past nine days — 13 players on the active roster added to the reserve/COVID-19 list — Mahomes insisted the process of preparation did not change.
But the characters certainly have.
Most noticeably, Mahomes’ primary two pass-catchers — tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill — are two of the 10 players on the active roster to land on the reserve/COVID-19 list in the past two days alone. Their absences will prompt the best-of-the-rest to fill in the gaps.
“Throughout practices, especially with those two guys, we try to let other guys get some reps — to not only get those other guys reps and get them work, but (also) to let those guys rest their legs, with Travis and Tyreek. They run so many routes on game days,” Mahomes said.
“Whenever you’re out there and trying to run the plays and get a look at the defense, you’re not necessarily looking at who’s running the routes. You’re just trying to go through your reads the right way. That’s how we always roll throughout practice. Just today, you didn’t have those main plays you’d usually run with them.”
OK, so it might not be a discernible difference in practice. It would, however, qualify as quite noticeable during a game.
Mahomes so rarely plays without either of these guys, and he’s never been without both. This is new territory — if they’re unable to play, that is.
Under the NFL’s new guidelines altered late last week, players can return earlier than they previously could, as long as they’re vaccinated and asymptomatic and they return a negative test result and meet a certain “cycle threshold.” That, however, has not been typical.
Therefore, for now, the Chiefs are preparing as if Kelce and Hill won’t be available on Sunday, when the Steelers visit Arrowhead Stadium, because with each passing day, it’s an increasing possibility. Hill and Kelce landed on the COVID-19 list only this week.
They’re two significant players in the offense. Do the Chiefs defeat the Chargers last Thursday without either of them, let alone both of them? Kelce had 10 catches for a career-best 191 yards and two touchdowns, including the walk-off game-winner in overtime. Hill caught 12 passes for 148 yards and a touchdown.
For the season, Hill is second in the NFL with 102 catches and fourth in the league with 1,178 yards to go along with nine touchdowns. Kelce leads all tight ends with 1,066 yards, four more than Baltimore’s Mark Andrews.
The Chiefs are doing their darnedest to preach the next-man-up mentality, both inside their walls and publicly in news conferences with the media. Regarding the game plan, for example, Mahomes said, “We haven’t changed much.”
But after a brief pause, he acknowledged, “There’s obviously some routes that Tyreek and Travis run that no one else in this world really can. But really, we just went out there and put a game plan together, trusting these guys to make plays happen. And we got the guys to do it. We got the speed. We got the playmakers, and I’m going to keep trusting in them.
“Hopefully we have Trav and Tyreek back, but if not, we’ll be ready to go.”
The Chiefs don’t have a like-for-like replacement for either player because, frankly, one doesn’t exist across the league for either player.
Of note: In games since Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback, the Chiefs are 3-1 without Hill.
Kelce has missed one Mahomes start — the first of his career, when Mahomes played with the backups in Denver.
That’s it.
“We’re OK. Listen, we’ve got plenty of bodies. Guys want to play. That’s how nothing has really changed,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “We plug in the next person, and here we go. That’s how we’re rolling right now.”