Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid joined the media for a virtual press conference following the team’s last practice before their final 2021 preseason game, which will take place on Friday night against the Minnesota Vikings at Arrowhead Stadium.
To date, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been on the field for 36 preseason snaps, and the new-look offensive line of Orland Brown, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith and Lucas Niang has seen 52 plays together.
“We’ll play the ones for the first half, and then we’ll see about after that and go from there,” said Reid. “The one bonus is we got a lot of snaps last week (against the Arizona Cardinals), so I can do whatever we need to do for this game because of last week’s game.”
That could very well mean Mahomes and company exiting the game after a drive that ends in a touchdown — something they have yet to accomplish this preseason.
Once the first team exits — around the halfway mark — it will be time for the bubble players to make one final impression before the final 53-man roster cut, which is due by 3 p.m. Arrowhead Time on Tuesday. As is the case every year, what the fringe players show in the game’s third phase may make all the difference.
“I go back to what (special teams coordinator) [Dave] Toub said,” started Reid. “It’s important from this standpoint — that you always have two or three guys that make it on their special teams play, and so there are a couple spots we have questions on. (General manager) [Brett] Veach has done a nice job bringing in great competition, so we’ve got to make some decisions in certain areas, and maybe we keep a guy here or there that we normally wouldn’t keep in a position and have a little bit of an overload because he’s been a good player, so this game will help us sort it out, but it’s just part of the whole.”
Vikings-Chiefs kicks off Friday at 7 p.m. Arrowhead Time.
