Podcast: How important is the one seed for Chiefs’ playoff run?

Playoff implications for Saturday’s game

I’d like to start this by sending my thoughts and prayers to Damar Hamlin and his family. Damar making a full and speedy recovery is far more important than the NFL playoffs or any game that will be played this weekend, so I felt it would be inappropriate to not acknowledge this situation before any sort of football talk.

For those who are unaware, Damar runs a toy drive in his hometown which has a GoFundMe page set up for donations. If you can donate, the GoFundMe is hyperlinked here and a tweet that also contains a link to the page is below.

The Las Vegas Raiders might have nothing to play for in Week 18 as they’re eliminated from the playoffs, but the Kansas City Chiefs do so the Raiders can play spoiler on Saturday.

Kansas City currently has a half-game lead over the Buffalo Bills for the top seed in the AFC and a game-and-a-half advantage over the Cincinnati Bengals. In other words, a loss in Las Vegas this weekend could cost Kansas City that illustrious first-round bye and home field throughout the postseason.

But how important is the one seed for the Chiefs as they begin to make their Super Bowl run?

“I think it’s really important for them,” Stephen Serda of Arrow Head pride said on this week’s Behind Enemy Lines podcast. “…They had a couple of injuries coming out of their last game that could be key. Guard Joe Thuney injured his ankle…and he’s dealt with an ankle injury already this season that caused him to miss games. …[Cornerback] L’Jarius Sneed also left the game with a hip injury.

“…As far as getting the bye goes, everybody could use that rest and especially the home-field advantage with the way [the Chiefs] play down to opponents. I just think it’s really important for them to try and maximize any advantage that they can get in the playoffs.”

A rundown of the full podcast can be found below.

Topics Discussed:

• Importance of Chiefs getting one seed
• Dream and nightmare first-round matchups
• Kansas City’s biggest impending free agent
• What to do with JuJu Smith-Schuster
• Could Chris Jones’ days in Kansas City be numbered?
• Where does Patrick Mahomes grow from here?
• Playoff and Super Bowl predictions
• & more!

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