Did the Kansas City Chiefs season just end unofficially yesterday? Dropping to .500 after losing to the Dallas Cowboys yesterday upped the degree of difficulty for the Chiefs to sneak into the playoffs, but now they have a very different problem to handle.
According to Ian Rappaport of NFL Media via Myles Simmons (no relation) of Pro Football Talk, left tackle Josh Simmons will be out indefinitely after dislocating and fracturing his wrist during yesterday’s loss. Simmons left AT&T Stadium with his wrist in a cast, and he’ll undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury.
The Chiefs offensive line is basically the definition of beat up right now. Guard Trey Smith was out yesterday with a sprained ankle, and the Chiefs finished the game with a makeshift offensive line that kept quarterback Patrick Mahomes hopping nearly every time he dropped back to pass.
The next opponent won’t help any. The Houston Texans have a nasty defense that would challenge any offensive line, much less one that’s banged up. After that the Chiefs get the Los Angeles Chargers, which obviously won’t be easy, and there’s still that Christmas night home game against the Denver Broncos to consider.
In a somewhat related story, Las Vegas seems to have turned on the Chiefs, and we’re not talking about the laughingstock football team at the bottom of the AFC West. The Chiefs’ odds to missing the playoffs are now -120, according to a story by Michael David Smith of PFT, compared to +100 to sneak into the postseason.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes commented this morning that the Chiefs have to win out, but even that might not be enough. An 11-6 record would likely put them at or near the top of the list of wild-card contenders, and even if that happens there’s a host of tiebreakers that would come into play.
It’s also fair to wonder what this is going to look like going forward with the offensive line. Simmons had an injury history coming out of the draft, and he also missed several games due to a personal issue that he had to go back him to California to handle, although he has played surprisingly well for a rookie left tackle.
The big question here is simple: How do the Chiefs continue to protect Mahomes with a big chunk of their offensive line out? The last thing the Chiefs need is a serious injury to their star quarterback, but saving Mahomes from himself might become a consideration down the stretch if the Chiefs slip below .500.