The Kansas City Chiefs will begin their preseason NFL slate against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday, projected to offer a surprisingly high-level display in the balmy summer heat of north Florida .
Chiefs coach Andy Reid plans to continue his controversial approach of playing his starters extended minutes in preseason action, with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City first team expected to feature for the first quarter, while Jaguars boss Gary Pederson will play his A-team for the first few drives.
“As far as the play time for this game, we’ll go the ones for a quarter, twos for the 2nd quarter, threes for the 3rd quarter and the fours for the 4th quarter,” Reid told reporters after training camp on Wednesday. "I allow [the starters] to get into the swing of things, and the ones that know how to do that."
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"Both sides of the ball, they know how to go about doing that, but somewhere you gotta get on there and shoot, and it gives them an opportunity to do that." Jaguars coach Pederson also offered his rationale for playing his starters on Wednesday, saying, "They need to have that sense of urgency, they need to have game action."
The preseason offers a variety of philosophies on team management, especially after the NFL's historic four-game exhibition slate was reduced to three ahead of the 2022 season. Some coaches, like Los Angeles ' Sean McVay and Dallas ' Mike McCarthy, either forgo playing their starters entirely or offer extremely limited minutes, but Reid has featured his first team prominently in the preseason throughout Kansas City's recent stretch of domination.
Between 2018 and 2022, Patrick Mahomes has played in three preseason games, excluding the truncated 2020 campaign, where he's averaged around 10 pass attempts per start. Mahomes' relatively prominent preseason presence earned the acclaim of ESPN commentator and former Colts punter Pat McAfee last season as well, who also criticized Indianapolis for not utilizing recent draft pick Anthony Richardson.
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"We did not have Anthony Richardson, we did not have any of our [offensive line] on the field," McAfee said on his eponymous ESPN program in 2023. "But that whole stadium was there to see AR do one thing. And Colts fans were like "Wait a minute, who's playing? And then you see Patrick Mahomes playing like a full quarter and a half, and it's like, "Are we making the right decision?"
The limited usage of Richardson and other NFL starters comes amid a long-term goal of shrinking or even eliminating the preseason outright. Speaking on an episode of McAfee's program at the NFL Draft in April, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the following about these summer exhibitions.
"We would do it in the context of reducing the number of preseason games," Goodell said. "We think that's a good trade: less preseason games and more regular-season games. I think most anybody would think that was beneficial. But again those other two factors are important."
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