Patrick Mahomes Explains Impact of Clinching No. 1 Seed, First-Round Bye for 'Banged-Up' Chiefs

The Chiefs will have extra time to rest and recover for the playoffs after securing the AFC's No. 1 seed on Christmas Day.

Dec 25, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) and tight end Travis Kelce (87) look at football cakes while being interviewed by Netflix reporter Stacey Dales following their win against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

The Kansas City Chiefs got what they wanted for Christmas by securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a 29-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday. After an early-season bye week and a late-year crunch of games, how badly did the Chiefs need to secure an extra week (or two) of rest?

After the game, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes explained why taking the AFC's top seed was so important as the Chiefs completed an action-packed run of three games in 11 days.

"It showed the toughness of the team," Mahomes said. "I think we got better as, obviously, the games went on. The guys, they're mentally tough and they're physically tough, and we played some really good football teams, some hard-fought battles, and the guys came away with three wins. Getting the No. 1 seed is important, it's like winning a playoff game, and so I was happy to get that done."

In addition to the No. 1 seed's first-round bye being "like winning a playoff game," it also allows the Chiefs to skip an entire weekend of playoff action in favor of a week of rest. With a now-meaningless game that likely won't feature many Chiefs starters in Week 18, the Chiefs could go nearly a month without playing a meaningful game before being three wins away from the NFL's first-ever three-peat.

The Chiefs' journey has been fascinating, but the end result is unquestionably perfect. They won't play a meaningful game until January 18/19. Mahomes, Kelce, Jones, etc. will have nearly a month of rest before playing games that matter. That's incredible, and hard to quantify.

— Joshua Brisco (@jbbrisco) December 25, 2024

In light of the Chiefs' battles with injuries this season and at the end of a long year following an early bye, Mahomes was asked if he felt that this year's team needed the break even more than Chiefs teams of years past.

"It's just going to be nice getting guys healthy," Mahomes said. "This was the earliest bye I've ever had, just in general. To kind of have had this grind of whatever it is, I think we had a bye on Week 6, so it's like almost 10 weeks of just football and grinding this short schedule at the very end of the year. We had some guys banged up, and to get them back healthy now, we'll see how Week 18 goes and who plays and who doesn't play, that's up to coach, but even getting this little break, getting back healthy, and then getting ourselves ready to go for the playoffs, it was super important, especially with the guys we have banged -up."

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