The Kansas City Chiefs will look to stick in the win column on Sunday afternoon with a divisional matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders on deck.
Here are five things to keep in mind heading into game day.
1. Here's a look at the final injury report for both teams.
The Chiefs will be without offensive tackle Josh Simmons (personal reasons) on Sunday, but otherwise have no players listed with injury designations heading into the game.
As for the Raiders, Las Vegas has two major contributors on their injury report in tight end Brock Bowers (knee) and wide receiver Jakobi Meyers (knee/toe). Bowers, who led the Raiders in virtually every receiving category last season, is listed as "Doubtful" for the game. The star tight end has been sidelined since Week 5, and his abscence on Sunday would be significant. Meyers, who is listed as "Questionable," would be a critical loss as well if he's unable to play.
2. The Chiefs enter Sunday's game with their entire receiver corps intact for the first time in quite a while.
For the first time in over a calendar year, wide receiver Rashee Rice will take the field on Sunday following the conclusion of his six-game suspension to begin the season. It will mark the first regular-season action for Rice since a knee injury ended his 2023 campaign in Week 4, bringing what had the makings of a special year to an abrupt conclusion before it could really get started.
In fact, through three games last year, Rice led the NFL in receptions (24) while ranking second in receiving yards (288), and he'll now have a chance to pick right back up where he left off as part of an offense that has scored at least 28 points in three-straight weeks.
The Chiefs' 95 points during that span are their most in a three-game stretch since late in the 2021 season, and now with Rice back in the fold, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has yet another playmaker joining a cast that already included Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, Tyquan Thornton, JuJu Smith-Schuster and the rest of the Chiefs' pass-catchers.
Mahomes has been spreading the ball around exceptionally well, too, as Kansas City is one of only three teams to feature four players with at least 220 receiving yards on the season (Kelce, Brown, Thornton and Smith-Schuster). Worthy, who returned from injury in Week 3, is averaging over 11 yards-per-touch in his three games back, and now Rice adds a significant dynamic to an already potent offense.
Additionally, despite the fact that all three players have been part of the Chiefs' roster since April of 2024, Rice, Brown and Worthy have never been on the field together at the same time due to various circumstances. That statement will (finally) be a thing of the past on Sunday.
"It's been a long time coming," Rice said on Friday. "The time's finally here."
3. Raiders' tailback Ashton Jeanty has forced 26 missed tackles this season.
Las Vegas owns the No. 29 scoring offense in the NFL through six weeks at 17.2 points-per-game, but it's not due to a lack of talent at the skill positions. Specifically, tailback Ashton Jeanty – the No. 6 overall pick in the draft back in April – ranks second among all running backs in forced missed tackles (26) and third in yards-after-contact (376) so far this year.
Jeanty exploded for 138 yards on just 21 carries back in Week 4, and in order to slow down the Raiders' offense on Sunday, it all begins with containing the former Boise State star.
Fortunately, the Chiefs are coming off a game in which they managed to hold the tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery to just 89 yards combined on the ground last week. It marked just the third time in the Lions' last 23 games in which they were held under 100 yards rushing, and Kansas City will need to put together a similar performance against Jeanty on Sunday.
Another player the Chiefs will need to contain this weekend is wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, who currently leads the Raiders in receptions with 29. Meyers – who is listed as "Questionable" for the game – has done the vast majority of his damage from the slot, drawing 18 targets while in the slot this year. Meyers has caught 26 of those targets for 204 yards – 106 of which occurred after-the-catch, marking the fourth-most of any wide receiver in the league.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how much cornerback Trent McDuffie plays in the slot on Sunday. McDuffie logged a season-high 17 coverage snaps in the slot last week, yielding one catch for just four yards.
McDuffie and the rest of the Chiefs' defense will also look to continue the two main issues that have plagued the Raiders' offense all season long: turnovers and red zone inefficiency.
Las Vegas' 11 giveaways lead the NFL, and quarterback Geno Smith's 10 interceptions are the most of any passer. Smith has thrown at least one pick in five of the Raiders' six games, directly leading to 35 total points for the opposition following those takeaways.
The Raiders have also struggled in the red zone, scoring touchdowns at the second-worst rate (38.9%) in the NFL.
So, if the Chiefs are to slow down the Raiders' offense on Sunday, it will come down to continuing those negative trends while preventing Las Vegas' playmakers – notably Jeanty and Meyers – from compiling breakout performances.
4. Las Vegas' defensive line can get after the quarterback.
The Raiders' defense ranks 23rd in scoring this season at 24.8 points allowed-per-game, but the overall numbers don't necessarily tell the full story. The aforementioned turnovers, for example, have been the primary reason Las Vegas has taken the field in its own territory defensively 13 times this year, marking the second-highest tally of any team in the league.
This group is talented, too, especially up front. Defensive end Maxx Crosby remains among the top pass-rushers in the NFL, and second-year defensive tackle Jonah Laulu has been impressive so far with four sacks already. The Chiefs will also need to keep an eye on defensive end Malcolm Koonce, whose last appearance against Kansas City included three sacks in a Raiders' victory on Christmas Day in 2023.
Kansas City's offensive line protected well last week against the Lions' stout pass-rush, allowing just 10 pressures on 38 dropbacks, and they'll need to be at their best once again on Sunday.
5. The Chiefs will look to continue their historic run of success against AFC West opponents.
Past performance is no guarantee of future success, but in the case of the Chiefs' recent history against divisional opponents, what it shows is a commitment to preparation.
The Chiefs prepare for divisional matchups with dedicated practices during the offseason, and unsurprisingly, that work has consistently paid off in a big way. Kansas City is 56-17 vs. divisional opponents since Head Coach Andy Reid took over in 2013, marking by far the best record of any team against their own division during that span.
Additionally, Patrick Mahomes is 35-6 in games against AFC West rivals, compiling the top winning percentage against divisional opponents of any quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger.
Mahomes is 12-2 against the Raiders in his career, and with an opportunity to get over .500 for the first time this season, he'll have an opportunity to add to those numbers on Sunday.
