Reid, Mahomes, & Hunt Speak to the Media

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Today we bring you a press conference recap, Chiefs trivia, NFL headlines, power rankings, and more.

Go Chiefs!

— Luke Gromer

Chiefs News

The Latest

See yesterday’s injury report below.

The Chargers are dealing with injuries to several key players, including QB Justin Herbert and both of their tackles. S Derwin James is also suspended for the game.

Coach Reid

• On activating Kareem Hunt: “I thought he had a good week of practice last week… Looks like he’s in pretty good shape. Now the next step is just getting him in the game. He’ll rotate in, and we’ll see how he does.”

• On Hunt’s readiness: “I feel like his retention was pretty good… He’s got a pretty good feel on what we’re doing.”

• On the importance of the running game: “It’s important [to be able to run against lighter boxes]… It’s been productive. We’ve had good, positive yards from it.”

• On Travis Kelce’s production: “I know people are saying that he’s old and has distractions or whatever. Defenses don’t think that. We have another receiver [who] plays opposite of him that has a lot of yards and catches. Trav is fine… He hasn’t lost a step… He’s not distracted. That’s not the case. People are making sure they have him taken care of with these defenses.”

• On Chargers’ HC Jim Harbaugh: “He’s a phenomenal football coach, and he’s proven that at every level. That will be no different here with the Chargers.”

• On Rashee Rice: “He’s as good as we were hoping he would be. The thing you don’t know when you get into this is the work ethic. He works his tail off.”

• On Carson Steele: “I thought he did a nice job for his first game… He’s got to fix a couple of things on protection, but he’ll take care of that. In the run game, he was hitting the right holes… He gives you an honest down, he’s going to run hard.”

• On close games: “I think the guys expect to come into these things playing four quarters. When you play good teams, you’ve got to come in with that mindset…. The parity in this league is ridiculous.”

• On Mahomes’ fundamentals: “He’s very hard on himself about that. You just go back and work your basic fundamentals [and] techniques… I don’t worry about him working on those things, he’ll be fine.”

Patrick Mahomes

• On areas for improvement: “All you can do is go back and practice. I think what I learned from last year is that it’s not always going to pay off right away.”

• On Rashee Rice’s success: “You’ve seen that he’s been more versatile this year… The way he’s able to catch the ball and make stuff happen after the catch. He’s a hard guy to tackle… When he’s getting those 1-on-1 matchups, he’s winning, and that’s all you can ask for.”

• On Travis Kelce: “I want to get him the ball more, but he’s like ‘I don’t care, I just want to win….’ If we’re winning, he’s good with… just doing whatever he can to impact the game.” Mahomes noted that Kelce is drawing so much attention that it’s opening up other players. Once defenses start respecting the other players more, Kelce will “eat” as Mahomes put it.

• On the attention on Kelce: “There was a play action play… I remember a linebacker and both safeties were both looking at Travis.” Mahomes noted that this left Noah Gray wide open in the middle of the field for an easy completion and big gain.

• On having Kareem Hunt back: “It’s super exciting. You can see how explosive he is… It’ll be nice to get Kareem in there.”

• On winning close games: “It definitely makes you more comfortable in those situations… Executing at a higher level in the fourth quarter offensively would be nice… Offensively, we’ve got to help the defense out by running time off the clock or scoring a touchdown to put the game out of reach.”

• On Wanya Morris’ performance: “I thought he did a great job… To have guys that can step in and play great football when called upon, that’s what you want on any football team.”

• On the Chargers under Harbaugh: “You can tell first off just how hard they play… I’ve heard he’s a great coach and a great person. Alex Smith spoke highly of him when he was here.” 

Kareem Hunt

• On returning to KC: “Honestly, no, I didn’t think I’d end up back here, but it’s crazy how some things happen and work out.”

• On his issues in KC: “I was very young at that time. Had a lot of success going for me… Felt like I needed time to figure myself out and learn. I had an opportunity to go to the Browns and stuff and it worked out.”

• On what he learned after leaving: “I learned that I’ve got to think before every decision. I learned that everybody doesn’t have the best interest for me.”

• On watching the Chiefs have so much success: “It was great. I was so happy and thrilled for them. I wanted them to win all along… It was hard [not being a part of it].”

• On what a championship would mean to him: “That’s been my goal… It’d be a dream come true for me… I couldn’t be more excited to help these guys defend that title.”

• On the emotions of returning: “It was a lot honestly. A lot of emotions. I was very excited. A little nervous. I said, ‘These guys know me, I just got to go and be myself.’”

• On Coach Reid: “I couldn’t be more excited to go play for a head coach like Coach Reid.”

• On recovering from a hernia surgery: “Honestly, I fought through that all last year. I got that done last offseason. I feel great… I’m excited to be fully healthy out there.”

• On wearing the Chiefs uniform again: “It’s been a long time coming. I can’t wait to go out there and put on the red again.”

• How the team has changed since 2018: “I see a lot of talent around here… I’ve just seen the way Pat has grown and matured and become the leader of this team.”

• On talking with ownership: “I’ll hopefully get to talk to [Clark Hunt] soon. I don’t really know what to say about that.”

View all press conferences in their entirety here

Yesterday we asked the readers…

How many touches do you think Kareem Hunt will get this week?

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 1-4 touches (49)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 5-8 touches (65)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 9-12 touches (16)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 13+ touches (2)

Luke’s Take

Carson Steele is the #1 RB in Pacheco’s absence, and Coach Reid has been vocal about his comfort level with Perine on 3rd down.

Hunt is fresh but still getting into “football shape” as Coach Reid so often describes.

I’d be shocked if Hunt has more than 8 touches, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he had as few as 2 or 3.

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Around the NFL

The Latest

• 🏈 Who: Cowboys @ Giants

• 📆 When: Tonight, 7:15 pm CT

• 📍 Where: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

• 📺 Watch: Prime Video

• 📕 Line: DAL -6

• Broncos LB Alex Singleton tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season

• Chargers QB Justin Herbert’s status for Week 4 is still up in the air as he recovers from an ankle sprain

• Chargers HC Jim Harbaugh criticized the NFL’s decision to suspend S Derwin James for his tackle last week (watch the hit here)

• Commanders RB Austin Ekeler will miss Week 4 with a concussion

• Saints RB Alvin Kamara did not practice yesterday with a hip and rib injury

• 49ers TE George Kittle was a limited participant yesterday as he recovers from a hamstring injury

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Worth the Click

• 🎧 Watch or listen to the latest episode of the New Heights podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce (hear Travis’ comments about the offense and his performance in this clip)

• 🏈 Grab some new Chiefs gear from Rally House*

• 🤔 Cam Newton made a bold statement about Eli Manning’s Hall of Fame nomination

• ⚾️ The Royals are 84-74 and close to clinching a Wild Card spot (also it’s worth watching Bobby Witt’s diving catch last night)

• 🎄 The holidays are right around the corner, and you can get a free quote for custom Christmas lights from our friends at Bucket Brigade Lighting*

• 🎟 Grab your Chiefs tickets before prices go up*

• 🎙 Rashee Rice was mic’d up last week in Atlanta and it’s pretty entertaining (with a lot of grunting)

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