KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is expected to play against Houston on Saturday, less than a week after sustaining a high-ankle sprain in a win over Cleveland, and he will likely have wide receiver Marquis Brown available for the first time in a regular-season game.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after a short practice Thursday that Mahomes had looked good moving around on his ailing ankle and “he’ll most likely end up playing.” That echoed what Mahomes professed earlier in the week, when the two-time NFL MVP said he planned to play unless the ankle hindered his ability to protect himself.
“He moved around pretty good,” said Reid, who acknowledged some concern about Mahomes’ availability immediately after the injury. “You’re always looking to make sure he can get out of the way, so there’s no further harm to him. That’s what I look at.
“We’re taking it day by day,” Reid added, “but he did look good out there.”
So did Brown, who dislocated the sternoclavicular joint in his shoulder on the first play of the preseason against Jacksonville. The resulting surgery had kept one of the Chiefs’ premier free-agent acquisitions off the practice field until last week.
Brown was able to move around during his rehab process, though and that allowed him to stay in shape. And given that he had an entire offseason program to learn the offense, Brown was able to quickly get up to speed with Mahomes and Co.
“He’s done a nice job,” Reid said. “I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t his legs, so he’s been able to run. Keep himself in running shape. But the rest of it, the surgery part, it looked good.”
Brown returns to an offense that looks vastly different than the one he was part of during the offseason.
The Chiefs lost their top wide receiver, Rashee Rice, to a season-ending knee injury in Week 4, forcing them to swing a trade with Tennessee for three-time All-Pro DeAndre Hopkins. Isiah Pacheco also spent time on the injured list, forcing Kansas City to bring in Kareem Hunt, and now the speed-and-power duo are splitting time at running back.
“Hollywood has played a lot in this league. I consider him a veteran receiver,” Hopkins said, “so having his experience is good.”
While the Chiefs (13-1) will have perhaps their most complete offense of the season on the field against Houston, where they will be trying to hold onto the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs, they are still trying to figure out their left tackle problem.
Reid said that All-Pro guard Joe Thuney, who slid out to tackle last week against Cleveland, was able to get more comfortable at protecting Mahomes’ blind side in practice this week. But the Chiefs’ coach also said rookie Kingsley Suamataia and second-year pro Wanya Morris, who had struggled when given an opportunity to start, spent time rotating in at the position.
“We’ll finalize that as we get closer,” Reid said.
In the meantime, Reid said that D.J. Humphries was making progress with his hamstring injury. The former Pro Bow left tackle, who was coming off a torn ACL, joined the Chiefs a few weeks ago but then got hurt in his first game against the Chargers.
The Chiefs are being cautious with Humphries in the hopes that he can solve their tackle problem in the playoffs.
“We don’t want him to do it again, but eventually he’ll get back in there,” Reid said, adding there is a chance Humphries could play in Pittsburgh on Christmas Day. “But literally, he’s been going out and running to see — to test it — but he doesn’t have that explosion right now. But it’s getting better.”
Chiefs cornerback Chamarri Conner is also getting better, Reid said, but he remains in the concussion protocol and will miss the game against Houston. There is a chance that he could be cleared to play against the Steelers.
In other news, the Chiefs have made their opinion of the NFL forcing them to play three games in an 11-game stretch quite clear over the past few weeks. Mahomes called the condensed schedule, which is caused by playing in the Christmas Day doubleheader on Wednesday, “not a good feeling” and said that amount of games “is not great for your body.”
Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones said the league should have given the four teams involved a later bye week. The Chiefs had theirs during Week 6, back in late October, when teams were still fresh from the offseason.
Hopkins levied even sharper criticism at the league Thursday, calling into question player safety during the three-game stretch.
“I think the league should definitely do something about that. Give teams some kind of mini-bye somewhere down the line,” he said. “I feel like they preach player safety and I don’t feel like this is the best situation for any team to play three games in this amount of days. I feel like the league should definitely try to review that after the season.”
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