Max effort and what else to watch when Chiefs visit Tennessee Titans on Sunday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chiefs exit playoff streak at 10; team aims to finish strong at 6-8.
- Coaches stress competition and resume-building despite season setbacks.
- Rookie Knowles rises on defense, Simmons pressures backups, Dike sparks returns.
With their team out of the playoff chase for the first time in a decade, Chiefs fans naturally are thinking about the NFL Draft, free agency and other issues they haven’t had to consider until after the Super Bowl.
At least not in five of the past six years.
Inside the Chiefs’ practice facility, among the players and the men who coach them, the approach with three games remaining is decidedly different.
“It’s finish strong as an individual and as a team,” defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “I don’t ever need to be motivated when I step on the field.”
The Chiefs’ streak of consecutive playoff seasons officially ended at 10 with Sunday’s home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
It’s been an incredible decade: Three Super Bowl titles, two more appearances in the big game, seven consecutive trips to the AFC Championship Game, most victories since 2015.
Now the Chiefs at 6-8 look finish strong — even without injured quarterback Patrick Mahomes — starting with Sunday’s game at the Tennessee Titans.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo scoffed at the suggestion that anything but winning was the objective.
“I don’t there is a coach or player who is built like that,” he said.
Spagnuolo won’t add to his collection of Super Bowl rings this winter. He has four, the most in NFL for a coordinator. And Chiefs defensive line coach Brendan Daly has more. He had been an assistant coach on teams that played in 11 straight AFC Championship games.
Before joining the Chiefs staff in 2019, Daly spent the previous five seasons with the New England Patriots. Their streak of AFC title game appearances ran for eight years from 2011-2018.
Had the Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in last season’s Super Bowl, Daly would have matched Tom Brady with the most NFL championship rings by a player or coach — seven.
Daly said he hadn’t given much thought to a streak so gaudy that it earned him a nickname: “Lord of the Rings.”
“I’m sure that will come as the reality when the season’s end hits,” he said. “But that the moment you’re in the flow of it.”
For now, he made clear, the Chiefs are playing to win.
“We want to put our best foot forward,” he said. “Every time we step on the field, we understand as coaches, as players, what we do out there. It’s our walking, talking, living breathing resume.
“You would like the results to be what you want them to be. Unfortunately that hasn’t gone entirely the way that we’d like them to. But it doesn’t mean you stop working. It doesn’t mean you stop pushing, trying to get better, trying to compete.”
Here’s what else to watch when the Chiefs play at Tennessee on Sunday. Kickoff is at noon and the game will be broadcast on CBS (Channel 5 in Kansas City):
Chiefs player to watch: Cornerback Kevin Knowles
The undrafted free-agent rookie has been one of the Chiefs’ big hitters on special teams, and now he’s getting opportunities on defense because of injuries.
Knowles has logged 39 defensive snaps in the past two games after getting five before then.
“I’m really excited about him,” KC special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Dave Toub said. “It seems like every week he makes a big play. He continues to show up and plays fast, and he’s tough as nails ... We’re excited for him as a corner and what he’s going to do for our defense.”
Titans player to watch: Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons
Simmons is one of the NFL’s best interior linemen. His nine sacks this season are a career best, and he’ll be on the prowl Sunday for Chiefs backup QB Gardner Minshew.
Minshew is stepping in for Mahomes, who suffered a season-ending injury last week against the Chargers. Simmons, meanwhile, had a strip-sack of Brock Purdy in San Francisco last week — and caught a touchdown pass for the second time in his seven-year career.
Special teams: Titans return man Chimere Dike
The Chiefs haven’t gotten much from their kick- and punt-return men this season. They’re meeting a Titans team that has.
Dike, a rookie who played at Wisconsin and Florida, is the sixth player in franchise history to surpass 2,000 all-purpose yards. He’s returned two punts for touchdowns and leads the NFL at 19.9 yards per return.