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Patrick Mahomes disagrees Chiefs are getting favorable calls | ESPN
The Houston Texans might think Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs receive favorable calls from the game officials, but Mahomes doesn’t agree.
“I don’t feel that way,’’ Mahomes said Wednesday as the Chiefs began preparations for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills at Arrowhead Stadium. “At the end of the day, the referees are doing their best to call the game as fair and as proper as they possibly can. And all you can do is go out there and play the game that you love as hard as you can and live with the results. … I think that’s what we preach here in Kansas City.
“You get new referees every year, you get new circumstances, and you never can really tell because every play’s different and that’s what makes the NFL so special. I feel like I’ve just continued to play the game, and I just try to win, and whatever happens kind of happens.’’
Bills vs. Chiefs: AFC Championship 2025 Odds and Box Score Predictions | Bleacher Report
Prediction: Travis Kelce Clears 80+ Receiving Yards, Scores
A quiet (by his standards) regular season appears to be giving away to another epic playoff showing from Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. His 117 receiving yards in the Divisional Round were his most this season, and his touchdown catch was only his fourth of the campaign.
“It’s big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games and that’s just how simple it is,” Mahomes told reporters afterward. “He’s one of those guys.”
The Chiefs might be as healthy and deep in the backfield and at wide receiver than they’ve been all season, but Kelce remains their best game-breaking playmaker. He’s a walking mismatch who has tremendous chemistry with Mahomes. Kansas City can, will and should do everything it can to maximize the impact of that partnership.
Buffalo has had three cracks at containing Kelce on this stage, and it’s yet to accomplish that. In those matchups, he amassed 26 catches on 30 targets for 289 yards and five touchdowns. There’s no logical reason to think his production slows down during the latest installment of this rivalry.
2025 NFL Championship Week Quarterback Power Rankings: Who’s The Best Passer Left? | The 33rd Team
2. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
Skill Score: 9.78 | Production Score: 6.04 | Ranking Score: 7.91
Patrick Mahomes had his lowest career success rate in a playoff game against the Texans, but there were still enough plays to keep the offense moving. The Chiefs mostly avoided throws outside the numbers and worked to get Travis Kelce open in the middle of the field. Even the best thro outside the numbers went to Kelce on a corner route when lined up in the backfield in the first quarter.
Kelce also had a big catch and run, and then, of course, he was the target for Mahomes’s touchdown pass while diving forward in the grip of a defender.
NFL playoff bracket, odds, best bets for AFC, NFC championships: Which teams advance to Super Bowl LIX? | CBS Sports
Buffalo Bills (2) at Kansas City Chiefs (1)
This latest chapter in the Josh Allen vs. Patrick Mahomes rivalry will bring more of the same. While these two quarterbacks are currently knotted with four wins apiece in their head-to-heads, Mahomes has dominated in the playoffs with a 3-0 record against Allen. Why I think that’s slated to continue, this AFC Championship matchup largely has to do with the Buffalo defense. Lost in the madness of the Bills’ divisional round win over the Ravens was their continued struggles on third downs, allowing Baltimore to convert seven of its 10 opportunities. With cornerback Christian Benford in concussion protocol and safety Taylor Rapp nursing a hip injury that knocked him out of last week’s playoff game, the inability to get off the field on the key down isn’t expected to get any better. That gives Mahomes a tremendous advantage, and it doesn’t hurt that his go-to option in Travis Kelce has heated up now that the playoffs have arrived. While Buffalo may have won the regular-season matchup earlier this year, Kansas City wins when it matters most, continuing the theme of this rivalry. And the NFL’s first three-peat is still alive …
Projected score: Chiefs 30, Bills 27
The pick: Chiefs -1.5
How the Chiefs schemed for weeks to turn Travis Kelce into ‘Playoff Trav’ | FOX Sports
There have been long stretches where Kelce has been unable to find the end zone. He just had three in the regular season. On his podcast “New Heights,” Kelce said it’s “f—ing frustrating” that he and Mahomes are “not on the same page” when it came to scoring. That might have been the team’s biggest issue in a season where the offense badly needed Kelce’s help and he wasn’t able to fully provide the star power that we’d previously seen from him.
That’s what made Kelce’s touchdown on Saturday the most encouraging play for the Chiefs. This Sunday in the AFC Championship Game, the Bills likely won’t fail to account for Kelce like the Texans did on that first reception. And I doubt that they’ll be silly enough to match him up one-on-one with a player of Bryant’s caliber near the red area. The degree of difficulty was astoundingly low for Kelce — until the touchdown. That’s when things got interesting.
Kansas City designed the play for that exact scenario. Third-and-long. Zone defense. (That tells you something about the Chiefs’ level of preparation.) Mahomes knew he wanted Kelce from the jump, but the QB told reporters that the play took longer to develop, which meant patience and — with luck — a longer-than-normal clean pocket. When the pressure arrived, Mahomes stepped forward and, as he was falling to the ground, zipped a ball into the area where he knew Kelce would get open: just behind the linebacker.
Chiefs Harrison Butker reaches milestone after divisional performance | Chiefs Wire
Butker started the divisional round game with a 32-yard field goal in the first quarter, marking his 33rd career postseason field goal. This broke a tie with Gary Anderson for sole possession of the fourth-most field goals in NFL postseason history. He added field goals from 36 and 27 yards and now owns 35 career postseason field goals, which have shown little issue since his knee injury in midseason.
“He’s (Harrison Butker) working through that (injury recovery), and he’ll be fine. He’s a hard worker, that’s what he does, and he’s a perfectionist on everything,” said head coach Andy Reid before the divisional game about Butker’s comeback from knee surgery. “He’ll just keep cranking, and I think he’s getting better every day as he goes through this.”
2025 NFL mock draft: Mel Kiper’s Round 1 pick predictions | ESPN
31. Kansas City Chiefs
Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss
No, Chris Jones isn’t going anywhere. But he could use more help alongside him on the interior in Kansas City. Nolen has strong hands and can pressure the QB from inside with his quickness. He had 12.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks in 2024. Nolen would give defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo yet another difference-maker to heat up the pocket.
Around the NFL
Source – Pass rusher Khalil Mack decides to play in 2025 | ESPN
Nine-time Pro Bowl pass rusher Khalil Mack, who said after the Chargers’ postseason loss to the Texans that he needed to take some time to mull his future, will indeed play in the 2025 season, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Wednesday.
Mack, 33, is set to be an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his 11-year NFL career.
Mack, a Defensive Player of the Year winner (2016) and one of the most decorated outside linebackers in NFL history, had six sacks this season — and two more in the Chargers’ 32-12 wild-card loss at Houston.
He has 107.5 sacks in his career.
Raiders expected to hire Buccaneers assistant GM John Spytek as new general manager | NFL.com
The 44-year-old Spytek has deep connections to Raiders minority owner Tom Brady. Spytek was a freshman outside linebacker at Michigan when the former quarterback was a senior. The duo also won a Super Bowl together with the Bucs in Brady’s first season with Tampa Bay.
Spytek has extensive NFL front-office experience, starting as a Detroit Lions operations intern in 2004. He spent five seasons in Philadelphia (2005-09) where he became a college and pro scout, three years in Cleveland as director of college scouting (2010-12), three seasons as a Denver scout (2013-15, where he won another Super Bowl ring) and joined Tampa in 2016.
With the Raiders locking down Spytek, the next order of business is landing on a new head coach to usher in the latest Vegas reboot.
Sources – Jets hiring Lions DC Aaron Glenn as new coach | ESPN
On his journey from low-level scout to highly coveted coordinator, Aaron Glenn told friends his “dream job” was to coach the New York Jets — the franchise that made him a first-round pick in 1994.
It became reality Wednesday, as Glenn — most recently the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator — agreed in principle to become the 18th full-time head coach in Jets history, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Jets hope to complete the blockbuster day by naming a general manager, and they’re deep into talks with former longtime Lions executive Lance Newmark. Newmark, the Washington Commanders’ assistant GM in 2024, overlapped with Glenn in Detroit from 2021 to 2023. They’ve maintained a relationship, a synergy that proved attractive to Jets ownership.
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
What to watch for in Chiefs-Bills on Sunday in AFC Championship
The AFC championship is on the line this week
By Brandon Kiley
This Chiefs team is boring. I don’t mean that as a slight. In a million different ways, it’s a compliment. It’s yet another way they’ve evolved into the late-2010s New England Patriots.
That’s certainly not a bad model to follow. Bill Belichick used to tell his teams, “You can’t win until you keep from losing.” Tom Brady referenced his old coach’s saying on the FOX broadcast while he watched the Lions implode on live television.
The Lions were everyone’s favorite team to watch this season. And, even in their divisional round loss, they went out with a bang. Detroit racked up more than 500 total yards, averaged a robust 7.7 yards per play and finished with more than 30 points.
Those are the types of numbers that generally win football games. Not this time. Not when you turn it over five times.
Belichick’s old adage has some truth to it. Turnovers are the great equalizer. Avoid them offensively and force them defensively, and you’re well on your way to victory. Teams that win the turnover battle are already 8-0 this postseason. In fact, teams that win the turnover battle in the playoffs are a staggering 140-40 (78 percent winning percentage) since 2004.
Social media to make you think
I asked @Ky1eLong why Travis Kelce is always open in big moments. The answer is practice: Kelce goes to a separate field and do slow, thoughtful version of his routes alone.
This was so good and a nugget I’ve never heard before. This is how players get great. Watch this: pic.twitter.com/Lkqhg1xMdH
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) January 20, 2025
