Kansas City Chiefs' Head Coach Andy Reid, Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Burkholder and quarterback Patrick Mahomes met with the media on Wednesday afternoon.
Here are five things that stood out.
Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance Rick Burkholder
1. A statement on injured offensive guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif and safety Armani Watts
BURKHOLDER: "First on Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, we told you after the game that he has a fractured fibula. He does, but after we reviewed the film and got to examine him the next day, he had some ankle pain. We did an MRI and he has what is known as a Maisonneuve injury. [Laurent] will tell you that it is pronounced differently than that. Basically, what happens there is his ankle gets externally rotated, the force tears ligaments in his ankle, it runs up the leg and breaks his fibula. He is going to have that repaired by Dr. Bob Anderson in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Monday. We will know more after the surgery about how much time he will miss. And then Armani Watts, as you remember last Wednesday, he reported with a groin injury. He played in the game somewhat, but when he dove for the ball in the end zone and broke up the pass, he did some more damage. We did another MRI on him and determined that he has a core muscle injury that needs to be repaired. He is in Philadelphia today visiting Dr. Bill Meyers and he will be operated on tomorrow."
Head Coach Andy Reid
2. Do you think Patrick Mahomes has made strides playing on the national stage that will help him in this game?
REID: "He has challenges all the way through, but the last two weeks, going back to the Denver game, there were challenges there. There were challenges last week with the interceptions. How are you going to come back from these different things? How are you going to handle the end of the game when it is close? I think he has done a nice job with it. [There are] great things that he can learn from it to make himself better and that is what he is in it for. You want to go through it, and even if you came out on the positive side of it, what can you do and what can you take from that to make yourself better? He is good with that. He is not afraid of going there."
3. What did you and Brett Veach like about Nate Orchard and bringing him on board?
REID: "Nate [Orchard] had a good college career. He played for a good friend of mine at Utah. He knows the system and is familiar with it. He would fit in that way. And then he's a good player, too. He is a very hard worker – a high-effort guy."
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes
4. What does it mean to you to be going head-to-head in a quarterback matchup with Tom Brady, who a lot of people think is the greatest to ever do it?
MAHOMES: "It is going to be a great opportunity. He is one of the greatest quarterbacks if not the greatest to ever play. I am going against their defense, but as a team, we are going to go in and try to compete. They are a good team in the AFC every single year. Just to compete against one of the best teams in the league is going to be an awesome opportunity."
5. What jumps out to you about the challenges New England will bring to you guys?
MAHOMES: "First off, they are going to have a game plan on trying to stop some of your better guys. With us, I feel like the mentality we've had this entire season is that whoever is open, give them the ball and let them make the play – [and that] is going to help us out a ton. They are going to do some stuff to try to confuse me, but I am going to try to maintain our game plan and keep working."
