The NFL did a really nice job, I thought, in scheduling the first four prime-time games of the new season, as all were intriguing matchups. What, did the league have an NFC bias on purpose? The first three were from that conference, but Week 1 concludes tonight with two AFC West powers facing off as Denver visits Kansas City. It's an 8:15 ET kick on both ESPN and ABC – there is a ManningCast on ESPN2, as well.
Is the Chiefs' dynasty finished? It's definitely fork-in-the road time for the Patrick Mahomes/Andy Reid Hall of Famer pairing off last year's 6-11 collapse that followed 10 straight playoff seasons and seven consecutive runs to at least the AFC title game. To reach the playoffs this season, Kansas City is -205, with No at +170. How important is Week 1 in that regard? The SportsLine Projection model gives K.C. a 63.3% playoff shot now that drops to almost 52.4% with a loss and knocks the season win total from 9.7 to 9.2.
Mahomes suffered the first major knee injury of his career last season, and back in the spring it was thought to be a race against time to be ready for Week 1, but he is. Reid is 68 years old. How much longer does he want to keep going? I haven't even mentioned another future Hall of Famer in Travis Kelce, who is expected to be in his final season before doing the Mr. Taylor Swift thing -- I'm assuming the missus will be there tonight . I don't blame Kelce, I'd go travel the world and do that as well (as long as she doesn't sing).
I promise you the Monday Morning Quarterback stories, but on Tuesday morning, headlines at the various media outlets like CBS Sports will be "Chiefs Aren't Dead Yet" or "Mahomes Era Needs Reboot" or something along those lines, depending on this result.
Meanwhile, I believe Denver is at least the defending AFC champion if Bo Nix hadn't fractured his ankle on the game-winning drive of the thrilling Divisional Round overtime win vs. Buffalo. Without Nix at home in the AFC title game and with Jarrett Stidham under center, the Broncos managed all of seven points in a three-point loss. Nix did participate fully in training camp practices but made just one appearance in a preseason game. Maybe a bit of early rust is coming from both quarterbacks, so I'll look at first-half Under with that total set at 21.5 points.
We'll take you through every aspect of the Broncos vs. Chiefs game that you need to know before you lock in your bets, including SportsLine expert picks, props, trends, DFS, injury information and everything else that will help you know which plays are worth making for the prime-time matchup.
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