Dolphins Wild-Card Opponent Breakdown: Kansas City Chiefs
The Miami Dolphins will look for their first playoff victory since 2000 when they face the Kansas City Chiefs in a first-round matchup at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night.
The defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs earned the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs after winning their eighth consecutive AFC West title. The Chiefs defeated the Dolphins, 21-14, when the teams met in the regular season in Week 9 in Germany.
To get some answers on five major questions related to the Chiefs, we turned to Joshua Brisco, Publisher of Fan Nation sister site Arrowhead Report.
1. How much have the Chiefs changed since Week 9?
JB: The Chiefs have a lot of the same problems they had when they met the Dolphins in Germany, but they have one new solution: rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice. He's mostly been a YAC machine, thriving in the unfamiliarly horizontal KC passing offense, but he broke off a route to receive a deep shot in Week 17, and that could be a sign of things to come for this offense. Rice and Travis Kelce are the only pass-catchers who have been consistently reliable for the Chiefs, and the more they can get from Rice, the better the unit will look in the playoffs.
2. What changes, if any, would you expect in the Chiefs' game plan to deal with the projected brutal weather conditions?
JB: I think the Chiefs are embracing a sort of "we're not stuck here with you, you're stuck here with us" mentality with the weather, hoping to find an edge as the local squad. As long as it doesn't get especially wet or windy, the game plan should look familiar. Still, I wonder if they'll give running back Isiah Pacheco a chance to stampede into the Miami defense — particularly at the off-the-couch EDGE defenders — to see if Pacheco can put the Dolphins on their heels. Andy Reid isn't exactly famous for his commitment to running the football, but if Pacheco can pop some early carries, I think KC should let him work.
3. What is the level of confidence in the Chiefs' potential to repeat as Super Bowl champions now that the playoffs are here?
JB: Believe it or not: low! If they beat Miami on Saturday, they'd likely have to go to Buffalo and then to Baltimore en route to a Super Bowl appearance. That's a brutal path if the favorites win out. In a season defined by self-inflicted wounds, everyone knows the Chiefs could win the Super Bowl with four clean performances, or they could get bounced by the Dolphins on Saturday with a few untimely mistakes. It's not just coachspeak in this instance; everyone is taking it one game at a time.
4. Patrick Mahomes didn't have a typical Patrick Mahomes season, but how much of a sense is there that he'll go back to working some magic now that the playoffs are here?
JB: The issue there is that a lot of "Mahomes magic" was simply undone by poor wide receiver performances. In four of the Chiefs' six losses this year, Mahomes had highlights taken back by drops, penalties, non-called penalties, and drops turned into interceptions. On some level, that's encouraging: Mahomes is still Mahomes. But he can't pull a rabbit out of his hat if his pass-catchers can't at least be the magician's assistant.
5. How would you expect the Arrowhead crowd to receiver Tyreek Hill in his return, and how do you figure the Chiefs will try to neutralize him?
JB: I think Hill will get a mix of cheers and almost-sarcastic boos from the freezing Arrowhead faithful. While some of his post-trade comments irked a few fans, he's fondly remembered by his former teammates and the vast majority of Chiefs fans. He'll be returning as a "villain," but the Chiefs already brought home another Lombardi without him, so I don't think there's much ill will beyond the fact that he's playing for the opponent. The defense will likely keep doing what's been working: let L'Jarius Sneed follow the opponent's top outside wide receiver most of the time, with Trent McDuffie covering the slot. It won't exactly be old-school one-on-one matchups, but with Sneed and McDuffie, the Chiefs have a ton of flexibility for handling Hill (and Waddle as the No. 2). When Kansas City needs a player to step up, Sneed and McDuffie can handle the assignment, but Steve Spagnuolo will certainly bring a variety of answers to keep the Dolphins guessing.
