Going into the 2024 season, it had been six years since any NFL team was asked to play three games in 10 days, but that's exactly what the Kansas City Chiefs will have to deal with starting this week, and Patrick Mahomes definitely isn't happy with the situation.
Starting on Sunday, the Chiefs schedule for their next three games will look like this:
Sunday, Dec. 15: at Cleveland
Saturday, Dec. 21: Houston
Wednesday: Dec. 25: at Pittsburgh
During a press conference on Wednesday, Mahomes was asked about that brutal slate and he didn't try to hide how he felt.
"It is not a good feeling," Mahomes said, via ESPN.com.
The Chiefs are playing on Christmas for the second year in a row and Mahomes did admit that he's fine with playing on Dec. 25 and that's mainly because he wants to get the taste out of his mouth from last Christmas, when the Chiefs lost to the Raiders, 20-14.
"I'm excited to play on Christmas to hopefully get back from what we did last year, but you never want to play this many games in this short of time," Mahomes said. "It's just not great for your body. But at the end of the day, it's your job, your profession. You have to come to work and do it."
Mahomes said he's been doing extra prep work to get ready for this brutal stretch.
"All you can do is focus on the game and the practice that you had that day," Mahomes said. "I try to prepare my body all year long for this stretch by tailoring my workouts, tailoring how you practice and you prepare. The coaches do a great job of taking care of us on the practice field. We practice hard as anybody, but they know how to kind of dial it back when we need it.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was also asked about playing three games in 10 days and unlike Mahomes, he didn't have any complaints. At least not publicly.
"That's a unique situation," Reid said. "You just have to manage it. It is what it is. You make the best of it. One thing is you've got to get guys ready for a game, give them the chance to do whatever you present to them. So, I help them out now. We've got a normal week right here. So, we've got to take care of business."
From the 2019 to 2023, not a single NFL team had to play three games in 10 days, but by the end of the 2024 season, a total of nine teams will have done it this year.
Heading into Week 15, four teams -- Jets, Seahawks, Saints and Cowboys -- have already played three games in 10 days and they've combined to go 4-8, but those four wins have come against teams that are currently a combined 16-36.
There are still five teams that have to play three games in 10 days over the next few weeks. Besides the Chiefs, there's also the Texans, Steelers and Ravens, who all have a similar schedule set up to Kansas City since all four teams are playing on Christmas Day.
The Chicago Bears will also be playing three games in 10 days and their brutal stretch will begin this week with a Monday night game in Minnesota. After that, they'll play a Sunday game in Week 16 before turning around and playing a Thursday game against the Seahawks in Week 17.
The Bengals were also scheduled to play three games in 10 days this year, but their Thursday night game against the Browns got flexed to Sunday in Week 16, so they won't have to deal with the nightmare scheduling situation that other nine teams will have had to deal with.
