Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
KC continues playoff push
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs are perhaps the most stable franchise in the NFL these days, led by a coach in Andy Reid who commands league-wide respect and a quarterback in Patrick Mahomes who is in the mix for a second MVP award.
So it’s no surprise they have clinched the AFC West and are tied with Buffalo for the conference’s best record.
Then there’s the Denver Broncos (4-11), the Chiefs’ opponent today, who mortgaged much of their future to acquire struggling Russell Wilson from the Seahawks and just fired Coach Nathaniel Hackett with two games left in his first year.
So it’s also not surprising they’ll be sitting out the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.
“They played us tough this last one. They gave us everything that we could ask for,” said Mahomes, who nevertheless led the Chiefs (12-3) to a 34-28 victory in Denver three weeks ago. “We have to go out and play our best ball. If you look at the tape, you see the talent that they have and how hard they play.”
It will be up to 67-year-old Jerry Rosburg to finally get that talent playing at a high level.
The Broncos turned to the career assistant, who has 18 years of NFL coaching experience, to bridge the gap from Hackett’s firing into next season. He was special teams coordinator in Baltimore for a decade with stops in Atlanta and Cleveland, and was hired by the Broncos in September to hire in-game management when Hackett struggled in his first two games.
“He actually worked for ( Ravens coach) John Harbaugh for a number of years,” Reid said. “One of the top special teams coaches in the NFL and a good football coach, period. But a tremendous special teams coach. Good guy.”
Turns out the affection goes both ways.
“He’s a fine man. He’s been so gracious with my family over the years,” Rosburg said of Reid, who was Harbaugh’s mentor in Philadelphia. “He’s a model for all coaches. We should all aspire to be like Andy Reid.”
While Wilson is suffering through the worst season of his career, Mahomes is on another tear for the Chiefs, putting himself in position to break the NFL record for yards passing in a season — albeit in a 17-game schedule rather than 16. And Rosburg has seen enough of Mahomes over the years that he’s plenty impressed by him.
He’s just not so excited about facing Mahomes in his first game running the show for Denver.
“I could list them, and you all know them,” Rosburg said of the Chiefs’ playmakers. “Who would sign up for this? You get to coach in the National Football League? OK, here are the Kansas City Chiefs. Here I am, choose me.”
Rosburg makes five different Broncos coaches for safety Justin Simmons since he was taken in the third-round of the 2016 draft. If owner and CEO Greg Penner wanted his opinion on, say, defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero getting a shot at the head coaching job, Simmons would gladly give it. Denver’s defense has been one of the best in the league until a clunker last weekend in a 51-14 loss to Baker Mayfield and the Los Angeles Rams.
“I just want to win,” Simmons said. “When stuff like this happens like with Coach Hackett, I think about what I could’ve done better to help keep his job stable. Whatever it is, whoever it is, I just want to win.”