The Kansas City Chiefs will continue to ramp up their starters’ workload ahead of the regular season in preseason Week 2.
When the Chiefs hit the field to face the Washington Commanders at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, the plan is to get the starters close to a full half of football. The offensive starters played anywhere from 3 to 16 snaps in preseason Week 1 and their workload could be doubled if not tripled this week.
“We’ll go somewhere (around the) first half with the 1’s,” Reid said. “It might be shorter than that, but I’m just going to see how things go. Then the rest of the guys will fill in. Chad Henne won’t play this game, like last year. We sit him and give the two young guys (Shane Buechele and Dustin Crum) some extra time.”
Last year Patrick Mahomes played 32 snaps in preseason Week 2. The starting offensive line played upwards of 40 snaps, which means we should see at least one series with Buechele behind the team’s starting offensive line if things go according to plan this year.
Reid didn’t rule out two injured players, DT Chris Jones and WR Mecole Hardman. Their injuries both seem to be minor in nature, with the team exercising some caution in the final days of training camp. Reid did, however, suggest that WR JuJu Smith-Schuster wouldn’t play in the game this week.
The Commanders also plan to play their starters per Washington HC Ron Rivera. He comes from the Andy Reid coaching tree and seems to have a similar philosophy regarding preseason games.
Ron Rivera said "ideally" he'd play his starters the whole half at Kansas City, but they thin at multiple positions because of injuries, so we'll see.
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) August 18, 2022
Rivera said earlier this week that some starters would be on a pitch count during the game, so it’s possible a few starters are pulled early to allow some depth players to rotate in.
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