- 2 days ago
We are diving deep into the Kansas City Chiefs' 2026 schedule. From the "mini-bye" after Thanksgiving to the brutal 12-week stretch with only three home games, Cody and Gold analyze every major hurdle Patrick Mahomes and company will face this season.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00a 10-day rest after one of those not after both obviously after thanksgiving not to play a week
00:05later then they'll get a 10-day rest before the rest of that brutal schedule so they get a
00:09mini buy gold late in the season but not a full buy as you would expect or hope i guess
00:15based on the way that that calendar lays out so it's tough but at the same time i'll say
00:20like the early part of the schedule certainly sets up some possible success depends on how
00:27you look at it maybe they can front run a little get to seven and three or something right in
00:31that
00:31that's not out of the question well i think if you look at the first five so denver colts you
00:36know
00:36dolphins raiders in the bye week you feel like going into the bye week this is a team that needs
00:43to
00:43be like three and one based off of what 12 through 17 is going to be but it's it's just
00:50it's a soft
00:50middle though i mean from week one to week 11 it's pretty favorable yeah i mean of course it is
00:56i mean
00:57in fairness the first four weeks are about is they are based on strength of schedule on vegas
01:02win totals the thing we talked about yesterday the easiest in the nfl straight up easiest like
01:07can't doesn't get any easier so number one now that 12 through 17 is uh the hardest in 30 years
01:14i
01:14think in nfl scheduling based on vegas win totals so it probably just depends on how you're looking at
01:18it i did want the easier part of the schedule to be early because i do think they'll be finding
01:23themselves on offense and finding themselves on defense rookies so from that perspective it's not
01:27every part of the chief schedule is bad the early part the the schedule being a little easier early
01:32that's fine the opponents they've got during that stretch even the home road split early is not so
01:39bad but that is the point i think sam mcdowell had pointed out first which was weeks three through 14
01:44or four through 14 they played three home games in 12 weeks now one of those includes a bye so
01:5011 games but 12 weeks that's all just because there's the bye and they open up they're one of
01:54two teams that are not i think it's like four teams that have two straight home games to start the
01:59year
02:00yeah but it's and that throws off the numbers especially when you only have eight home games
02:04and nine road games and no international games so you are like they are true to true to form like
02:11genuine road games and so it's always going to feel a little bit that way my initial thought was we
02:17didn't even have to do the normal conversation like normally we would come in the show and we'd say
02:21hey who who thinks that this is the hardest part of the schedule what is the part that at least
02:27drives us in here and at least puts us in a to a portion of it and so that part
02:32of it is a more than
02:33fair question this is not the question this year we know the hardest part of the schedule is gold
02:37it's if you make me limit it to four games it's probably still the first four bills rams bangles
02:42patriots um i would just leave the 49ers and chargers off the back end but there is no mystery
02:48of what is the easiest part of the schedule and what is the hardest part of the schedule
02:52the easiest part of the schedule is the first four games the hardest part of the schedule is weeks 12
02:57through 15 like it's not even a mystery i would say based on that i guess the question is do
03:02you
03:03think because of his injury is it a is it a net positive or net negative the schedule the order
03:08of
03:09games in which they're playing him yeah i think overall it's it's still a positive because your
03:13hope is that one the schedule just sorts itself out it's never as it never goes the way we all
03:18think
03:19it's going to go as i said there will be one of these teams buffalo rams since c new england
03:23san
03:23francisco whoever that are not going to be as good as we all think somebody i don't know who and
03:28then
03:28there's injuries so i don't want to predict the quarterback to get hurt but there's one of those
03:32quarterbacks suddenly hurt and that game looks completely different and so that's one part of it
03:37the other part would be just that mahomes himself that monsoor delane that you know some of these
03:44other rookies that could be involved peter woods do they get better as the year goes on and suddenly
03:49it's a better defense by week 11 or week 12 i should say face all these tough offenses versus if
03:54i told
03:54you they were opening if they were opening buffalo la since c new england you'd be like oh that's a
04:00big
04:01problem those quarterbacks are all going to be healthy they're all gonna like so i i would rather have
04:04on the back end but also just keep in mind they better by by week 10 and 11 when they
04:09would have
04:09already played the jets the falcons the cardinals the raiders and the dolphins they they better have
04:14some wins in their back pocket because no matter how good we're feeling let's say this team gets
04:19off to a great start let's say they're let's say they're six and two let's say they're six and two
04:23maybe they will be maybe they won't they should try to be just because they're six and two doesn't
04:27mean they're winning the division and going to be a top seed in the afc because they got a ton
04:31still to come i just think they they have to certainly stockpile some wins early it feels
04:35like when you look at the schedule and i think there's a great opportunity to do that if they
04:38could they are slight favorites in week one against the broncos i think it's a really tough game for
04:41them for obvious reasons but let's say they go on the bye week and they're four and oh that then
04:46you
04:46then you can have a little bit of wiggle room the rest of the way i guess what it stands
04:49out is and
04:50look as the season goes on we'll probably get a better feel for this gold than i do right now
04:54and so
04:55maybe that changes a little bit but as it sits right now i don't think i'm going to be willing
05:00to be a believer on the chiefs until like thanksgiving dead serious i mean they could
05:06start seven and three and i'd be like can we wait just a minute because the truth is if they
05:11start
05:11something like six and four or five and five well then i'm they're never getting through the back
05:16half of that schedule they can certainly talk me out of them being a playoff team very early in the
05:21season drop one to miami lose a couple of the other ones and we're having a completely different
05:26conversation about the team start seven and three and i'm still gonna be saying let's wait and see
05:30i think i'm still gonna ask for them to like do it in the late part i think we'll know
05:34though week
05:35six seven and eight that'll answer our question on that week six chargers at home on the road at
05:40seattle on the road at denver week six seven and eight that that's me will tell us that we'll get
05:44our answers by then in my opinion on how good you think so because that's a tough stretch but then
05:48it's followed by an easy one and they'll have their buy going into week six which normally is a good
05:53thing for andy reed no the buys week yeah the buy before yeah that's what i'm saying yeah have the
05:58buy before week six you're saying by week six seven and eight i'm saying they get the advantage in one
06:02of those games it's not nearly as tough of a stretch as later i don't know i just feel like
06:07the there's
06:08a part of me that just won't believe until we get later into the year when they face the actual
06:12difficult like hard stretch of their thing i understand facing the chargers and facing seattle is
06:20not nothing especially than going to denver but we both know that the chargers in seattle are two
06:25teams that could certainly be worse than they were last year and so even if they're a good football
06:31team they might not be a great football team versus i know a couple of stretches during that 12 through
06:36four some of the some of the one of those teams gonna be great one of those teams gonna be
06:39the
06:39best in the nfc one of those teams gonna be one of the best in the afc it's not like
06:43a mystery we
06:44get there i'm not saying that stretch is nothing and it can tell us something but i'm not you know
06:48if they go one and two in that stretcher but are seven and three through ten i won't be burying
06:53them or saying it but i'll be going in pretty pretty cautiously starting in week 12 i mean
06:58we don't have the the lines for every single game yet but they're gonna be weird it is weird but
07:04like
07:04we right now i mean without looking because we don't have it for every game we know they're two
07:09and a half point favorites against the broncos at home they're gonna be favorites against the
07:12colts at home yep they're gonna be favorites on the road at miami they're gonna be favorites on the
07:18disastrous early that probably a favorite at home against the chargers they're gonna be a dog my
07:22guess is on the road at seattle we'll see about denver depends on the first meeting again my point
07:27is in the first 11 weeks cody they're only going to be an underdog maybe once maybe twice if as
07:31long
07:31as they don't blow up and start one and three at seattle they'll be an underdog and then depending
07:35on what the chargers do early but the charges games at home so they probably won't be a dog there
07:39jets falcons cardinals raiders and dolphins probably right those five in your first 11 games they
07:45have a chance to go they have a chance to go like nine and two to start the season and
07:50they have a
07:50chance to go eight and three i honestly think that if you want them to be a division contender they
07:55have to go that during that stretch because if they get through that week 12 through 17 500 i'll take
08:01it
08:02now if you could promise me 500 for that stretch of six games i'd sign up immediately and that's the
08:07part of the schedule that becomes difficult it's like some people and i guess nationally they're like
08:11took it easy on the cheese early with my homes i'm like did you see weeks 12 through 17 you
08:17know
08:17my dream scenario is the beginning part of the schedule is easy with a couple of extra difficult
08:21games sprinkled in there you know maybe week three is a little harder or one of the cardinals and jets
08:27games are spread out into the later part i'd like a little more balance in the difficulty i don't i
08:32mean
08:32no no no no no you want it all easy early all now that the schedule said i don't give
08:36a damn how
08:37good the raiders like you're oh no i thought you were saying no i'm saying before going into the
08:42schedule i thought you were saying i want the week three game to be a little harder i'm like why
08:45no i
08:45wish i wish in retrospect it had been a little more balanced it is an it's not balanced in any
08:50way
08:50week five by so they got to play the rest of the season yeah they are all over on the
08:54prime time
08:55games they play back-to-back thursday games their schedule makes no sense for a chief schedule even
08:59it's weird back-to-back thursday night games thanksgiving in the week after three straight noon games that's not
09:04common for the chiefs bunch of home games early and then a stretch of time and essentially where
09:09they just play away from arrowhead forever their schedule's weird it doesn't have any kind of uh
09:14rhythm to it now maybe not any worse than last year maybe but and it's also top or back heavy
09:21right so
09:22you got a problem at least on that they also don't face a single team that's that's coming off a
09:26bye week which is nice so they're we talk about the net rest stuff you know that's gonna be good
09:29they're one of i don't know what is it 10 plus teams that don't have a team they're they're facing
09:33off a
09:33bye i will say that's good and because like everybody gets screwed in the schedule a little
09:37bit that's why i try not to like make it seem like the nfl's out to get the chiefs i
09:41don't genuinely
09:41believe that i just think the schedule sometimes works in a way that doesn't benefit you and this
09:46year i would say it's more a net negative the way they lined up the opponents than a net positive
09:51but i don't want to pretend like it's they got hosed because that's not the case the worst thing
09:57they got was the early bye and the stretch of six games in a row that doesn't look easy but
10:02it's
10:02there are plenty of positives like we said on the early part of the schedule like i saw cincinnati's
10:06got to play a game after they don't even get a bye week after an international game which i guess
10:11i
10:11thought was penciled in as like a lock and i i guess is not i learned later that's not the
10:16case it
10:16is just one of those things they try to do but don't promise they got the same bye week as
10:20the
10:20chiefs i think they're week five or six two yeah it's the week after so everybody's kind of stuck in
10:25a weird spot sometimes schedule wise but at least we know we know the order we'll uh we'll kind of
10:30speculate based off of that later on in the show of how many wins we'd lock in but
10:34you know at least we got a we got a system
10:36you
Comments