Could Mahomes Face Packers? ‘I Don’t Know,’ Reid Says
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will practice on Wednesday, just six days after suffering a dislocated kneecap against Denver.
What does that mean for Sunday night’s showdown against the Green Bay Packers?
“I don’t know. I’m going to just see,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said in a conference call with Packers beat reporters on Wednesday. “I’ve got a bunch of guys who are just kind of coming back off of things, and so I’m going to see how they all do and then I’ll be able to get a little better feel on things. But he’s going to do a few things out there, and we’ll see how he does.”
Reid told reporters in Kansas City earlier Wednesday that Mahomes wanted to return that night against the Broncos.
Practicing this week, however, does not equate to playing. It all could be gamesmanship to make the Packers prepare for two very different quarterbacks in Mahomes and veteran backup Matt Moore.
In 2017, when Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was coming off a broken collarbone, he practiced before two games before returning to face Carolina.
Moore will get most of the reps at practice, Reid said. Moore told reporters in Kansas City that he had not been told whether he would be the starter this week.
The reported timeline for Mahomes to return is three weeks, though all players recover at different rates. On Monday, the Chiefs confirmed what was widely reported. Mahomes suffered a dislocated patella that club physician Paul Schoreppel reduced on the field. The club's medical staff took X-rays of Mahomes' right knee at the stadium in Denver on Thursday night and followed up with an MRI Friday at the team's training complex in Kansas City. The results were “as good as we could possibly imagine,” said Rick Burkholder, the Chiefs' vice president of sports performance.
As for Moore, he wasn’t even in the league last season. Instead, he was a high school assistant football coach. But the Chiefs needed a backup when Chad Henne went down in the preseason, and Reid called Moore. Moore was good enough to finish what Mahomes started in a rout of the Broncos.
Mahomes and Rodgers might be the most physically gifted quarterbacks in the NFL. Simply put, there are things Mahomes can do that Moore couldn’t imagine doing. Still, Reid said things wouldn’t change much schematically if Moore had to play against the Packers.
“Listen, I don’t think the plays would change a bunch,” Reid said in the conference call. “They didn’t in our last game, so we kind of kept doing what we do. That’s how you go. I think most coaches will probably tell you that, right? So that’s kind of where you roll, and then Pat separates himself by just doing them great. That’s what he does. I have full trust in Matt and how he goes about his business. If it comes down to that, we’re lucky to have him. That’s how we feel.”
Moore, 35, entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He’s started 30 career games – he’s 15-15, including 0-2 for Miami in 2017 – and played in 51 games. He’s thrown 1,003 passes. Last week against the Broncos, he went 10-of-19 passing for 117 yards and one touchdown. While Moore lacks elite physical traits in terms of arm talent and athleticism (91 career rushing yards, including minus-1 since 2011), his experience would be an asset against Mike Pettine’s attacking Packers defense.
“They’ve been there, they’ve done it, they’ve seen about everything,” Reid said of the upside of a veteran backup. “Especially if you get somebody like I’ve got with Matt and Chad and those guys. They’ve been around so long that there’s about nothing that they haven’t seen, and if it is new, they can kind of fix it and get it right.”
