The Josh Innes Show - Is Mahomes Gonna Play?

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Patrick Mahomes has a high ankle sprain. That said, he allegedly practiced. Is he gonna play versus the Texans or is this just a little game from Andy Reid? How important is this game for the Chiefs? Does Mahomes even need to play? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This weekend, they play the Texans. If Patrick Mahomes legitimately has a high ankle sprain, there's probably no reason for him to play. However, yesterday they said that Pat was a full participant in practice. Don't know if I buy that. Like they could list him as full participant. I don't think they have to go into, uh, specificities about what being a full participant means when they do the injury report.

I don't think so. Maybe they do. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think they could be full of shit. And I think part of the full of shit is they want the Texans to wonder if Mahomes is going to play or not, which is just good games gamesmanship and that's the way this thing operates but if I'm the Chiefs and I'm 13 and 1 I'm two games ahead of Buffalo right now with three to go why do I need to risk further injury for the most important player perhaps in the NFL why am I risking further injury to take on the Texans in a game

that big picture means absolutely nothing to the Chiefs? Which, by the way, is a game the Chiefs could win without Pat Mahomes. It seems ridiculous, but Carson Wentz is a capable guy. Is he great? No. But could Carson Wentz win them one random game against the Texans who can't score a lot of points? Absolutely he could. So this is not a must-win game. By the way, now here's where it does get interesting for the Chiefs because there's an outside shot you could blow the number one seed, but it would take a lot and Buffalo has to win out. You have to lose a couple so that factors in. So maybe Mahomes is in play a little because then you got the Steelers on Christmas Day on a short week there, and you got the Broncos, who could have, should have, would have beaten you already,

and you're going to their place for the last game of the year. Do I think it's likely that they blow the number one seed? No. But if you look at their schedule, it's not easy down the stretch. You look at the Bills' schedule, and it's the Patriots, the Jets, and the Patriots. So as it stands right now for Buffalo, Buffalo is probably going to be 14-3. That's where you stand right now. 14-3 is the line for you. So 14-3, what are the, so essentially what has to happen? The chiefs have to win two games to guarantee they have the number one seed because at that point

they have 15 wins and they're worse 15 and two, and they get the number one seat and they want the number one seat. Their schedule is decidedly tougher, exponentially tougher than the schedule of the Buffalo bills. So do the Texans view this as must-win territory, or do the Chiefs rather view the Texans game as must-win territory? I don't think they do. Look, they're the Chiefs. I don't think they're blowing all three of these games. Do I think Mahomes is playing this weekend? Let me put it this way. I am not a professional athlete. I am not a world-class professional athlete. I am not the best quarterback in the NFL. Okay. Well-documented that said I have had a high ankle sprain before. Like I thought I broke my ankle.

It was actually a time that, uh, me and Luther went for a, we were walking, me, Luther, and Jilly were walking in Houston, and Luther decided to take off down this hill, and I didn't expect it. Grass was a little slippery. My shoes had zero grip. They were like those Nike shoes that the sole was kind of wearing off of them, and I slipped and rolled my ankle really bad to the point that I thought it was broken. To the point that I had to crawl down this hill. Jilly had to go back and get the car.

I crawled down. Basically didn't crawl. I rolled down this hill to get to the sidewalk. And Jilly got me in the car. I could not stand on my foot. I had to go to the urgent care. They put me in a wheelchair. I mean, it was rough, right? And they're like,

no, your ankle's not broken. You just have an ankle sprain. And it was like a high ankle sprain, a severe, nasty, terrible, awful ankle sprain. And that shit had me out of commission. And when I say out of commission, could not walk. It was terrible. And I was out of commission for weeks and weeks and weeks, maybe months. It took me months to get this thing right. Now, I am not Pat Mahomes. I do not have the doctors Pat Mahomes has. I do not have the treatment that Pat Mahomes has. I understand that.

Totally cool. But I know what it's like to have a high ankle sprain, and it fucking hurts, and it takes a while. So now, is he going to go out there, wrap it up, spit on it, inject it, and say we're going to play? Maybe they view this as their more gettable game. Maybe they think that this is a team they have a better chance of rolling out and beating without him than Pittsburgh would be or Denver.

Both Pittsburgh and Denver, while they may not be fighting for their playoff lives in those games, they also could be. Because if you start to look at the schedule and you look at where the standings are, more than likely the Broncos are in, more than likely the Steelers are in, more than likely, I mean, they're all in. You look at it, it's going to be almost impossible for these teams to blow it. The teams that are in currently in the AFC are the teams who are going to be in. The only teams that have a chance,

Bengals, Dolphins, Colts, it would have to be miraculous territory for them to steal the seven spots. So Denver's in, and so is Pittsburgh. Those teams are in. When I say that it would be a tough spot, I'm really talking about where they would be in the playoffs. For instance, the Steelers could have a home playoff game or the Steelers could end up as the five or the six and playing on the road. And the Steelers, if you look at their schedule, they've got coming up, they still have to take on the Ravens. That game is Saturday. That is a gigantic game that if the Steelers win, you feel pretty, you feel pretty good about their chances of winning that division, but they then have to face the Chiefs, then they have to face the Bengals.

Now, the Bengals, by week 17 or week 18, are going to be out of it, and who knows how much they're going to give a shit, but you've got Ravens, and you've got Chiefs back-to-back weeks, and you're trying to hang on to first in the NFC North, and you haven't been playing well because George Pickens has been out.

So, look, these games are gigantic, is what I'm telling you. The Chiefs, not every game is gigantic. That's kind of where you stand right now. You're up comfortably on Buffalo. That's what you got going for you. Buffalo's got the win advantage over you, but still for them to even have that factor in,

they have to at least tie you. If you win one more game, Buffalo tie you win two more you're gonna win the number one overall seed so look it is what it is but let's be real about what we're dealing with here this is not a must win game for the chiefs do i think they're posturing a little bit this week do i think they're kind of letting the the Texans have to guess who they're going to face yes and they should that's how you should operate in this case but uh I don't know if he has a legit high ankle sprain and Pat has said like I don't want to hinder the offense if I'm slow out there I don't want to be slowing anybody down maybe like here's how I would approach this look if Mahomes is 100% playing if's not, there's no reason to risk anything else,

risk him hurting himself even more, not being able to move around, takes a big shot, takes a head hit, who knows, and then he's out. And we know the fucking Texans aren't afraid to deliver a fucking headshot to a quarterback. So if he can't move around 100, and this game is not a must win for them, this would be the scenario on this this especially when you're gonna have a short week coming up the next week as well I think this is the kind of scenario where if you're the Chiefs you circle the Steelers on the 25th that gives you what eight days from now to get him ready to face the Steelers if you can get that I think you can beat the Steelers even though it's in Pittsburgh that is a beatable team if they have George Pickens it's different Steelers are going to be in must win mode I get all that Texans are not in must win mode they've won the division they could end

up the three seed that's about as good as they're going to do so uh this to me is not a must play situation this is a make the Texans think you may play my home situation to make them plan for two different guys. That's what I would do in this scenario if I were Kansas City. And that's what I think Kansas City is doing in this scenario right now. All right. We'll talk about more football stuff in just a moment after these words. All right.

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It's a sad day because Kirko is done, probably done in Atlanta, and it is time for Michael Penix, which actually should be fun in the last three weeks of the year. It's fascinating that a team is going to go to a rookie quarterback while they're still firmly in the midst of a playoff race that they're very much involved in. So, look, I'm a Kirk guy. I think it's mostly because I enjoyed him on the quarterback show and he seems like a real nice dude. Like just a friendly kind of just doofus he's a doofus there's nothing to really hate about Kirk Cousins like he's not a super asshole or some arrogant cocky motherfucker he's not like

Aaron Rodgers who's a divisive guy where I can see where some people would dislike him and some people would like him Kirk goes just a doofus he's just a dad dad jeans dad pants just a doofus. He's just a dad, dad jeans, dad pants, Coles doofus. And I like him. So he's also a very rich doofus. Let's not forget about that. So no feeling sorry for Kirk at this point. But the dude's arm just fell off, basically. Like his arm is dead. Finney finished. So he's gone. And now we get Michael Pennix and michael pennix is interesting because if you look at what atlanta still has for the rest of the year atlanta's got the giants who they can beat should beat the commanders who they can beat and the panthers who they should beat so as the falcons sit here second in the nfc south the falcons are not dead and this might

be the spark they need if you you look at them, they are currently a game behind Tampa. Now, Tampa's schedule, you may ask. Tampa's got the Cowboys, the Panthers, and the Saints. Those are all games they should, could win. If they win those, it doesn't matter what Michael Penix does. But I'll tell you what's fun as far as the NFC playoff picture goes. Here's what's fun. When you get Buccaneers, sorry, eliminate Buccaneers from that. When you get Falcons and Commanders, a game that's been flexed so that Commanders Falcons game has been flexed. It's a Sunday night game now. The game matters for the Commanders. The game matters for the Falcons, presumably. And you're going to get to see Michael Penix,

who a lot of people thought should have won the Heisman. I did not. He didn't play anybody. I am totally cool with the guy who won it. That guy is Jaden Daniels. Maybe I'm an LSU homer. But Jaden Daniels versus Michael Penix Jr. in what should be a fun game.

So I'm glad that we're getting to see some Penix. Kirk's dead in Atlanta. Other stuff in the NFC as we've talked about we talked about it uh yesterday but you know the Rams the the west is still up and so is the south so is the north I mean like there's still a lot of shit open in this thing so uh there's a lot of fun shit going on in the nfc with you know a couple of weeks to go but um yeah i'm intrigued by michael pennix i'm glad we're getting to see this i like that match up a lot i'm glad they flex that initially you'd see that go why the fuck are we flexing the

commanders who are gonna make the playoffs but aren't gonna win their division and the falcons who by that point might be basically eliminated from the playoffs. Why the fuck are we seeing this? Well, it's because we get the two dudes who were vying, who were battling it out for the Heisman last year. So I'm looking forward to that. I think that's going to be a fun little matchup there as far as the NFC goes. But after that, you got the Lions. Now, the Lions, who have fucked around and now find themselves in a spot

where not only can they lose the number one seed, they could also lose the division. The Lions are in a position now where you talk about the penthouse to the outhouse. We're talking about a team who goes from guaranteed, they're the Super Bowl favorite, to they might be playing a road playoff game, and that's very realistic. So what is the Lions schedule? They have the Bears coming up. That's definitely a game they should win. Let's look at the Lions schedule? They have the Bears coming up. That's definitely a game they should win. Let's look at the Lions schedule to finish things out. Lions schedule. Let's take a look here.

So the Lions schedule, the way it shakes out now, they have got the Bears, and then they have got the 49ers down the stretch here. So those are both teams they can beat, and then they get to finish the year against the Vikings and that Vikings game could be for everything or it could already be decided who the hell knows but like Vikings Lions to end the year let's see what the Vikings have uh now the Vikings have it tougher they've got at Seattle home Green Bay at the Lions so you would still give the edge in that schedule wise to the Lions, but there's a very realistic possibility as we sit here today that that game at the end of the year, Vikings

Lions is for the fucking division. Both teams are going to make the playoffs presumably, but I mean, they are, they're in, but it's a matter of who's going to win that division. And can you imagine like for the last three months, all we've talked about is lions. It's destiny. Finally, the lions, the lions are finally going to win 13 games for the first time ever.

Wow. The lions, the lions, lions, lions. Imagine a universe that we could live in where the lions who were locked and stocked and everybody had them penciled in to a universe where we're going to be looking at a scenario where the lions are not only not winning the division,

they're not playing at home, they're not the number one seed. And let's see, if they finish, let's say they finish at 13 and whatever. So the odds are they're going to finish as the top wild card in that situation. So in that spot, you'd be looking at the Lions as the four, I guess, is who they would be in that scenario, the four or the five, either way. So you would be playing a road playoff game and you could be playing a road playoff game against, probably wouldn't be the Eagles. In this case, they'd get the bye or the Vikings may get the bye, but you could be going on the road and facing the Bucs. You could be going on the road and facing the Bucs. You could be going on the road and facing the Rams.

And as we've seen, the Bucs have beaten you, and the Rams can move the ball. So it's a very realistic possibility that that happens. We'll see. But shit, man, talk about a turn of events for them. Like, I'm enjoying this. This is fun. So we shall see. But anyway, we'll do more in a little bit.