Getty Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and offensive tackle Mike Remmers.
With the Kansas City Chiefs heading to Las Vegas for only their second divisional matchup of the season, the offense is dealing with some additional adversity before the defending AFC champions even take the field on Sunday, November 14.
Offensive tackle Mike Remmers has been placed on injured reserve, according to the NFL’s transaction report on Saturday, November 13.
The #Chiefs have placed OT Mike Remmers on IR. He will miss the next three weeks at minimum.
Remmers (knee) has been listed on the team’s injury report since Week 8. He was inactive for Kansas City’s 13-7 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 9. Prior to that, Remmers had started at right tackle in Weeks 7 and 8 against the Tennessee Titans and the New York Giants, respectively. Placing him on injured reserve means the Chiefs will be without their veteran lineman for a minimum of three weeks. This also means we shouldn’t expect to see Remmers until at the very least after the team’s bye week, which is in Week 12.
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Right Tackle a Position of Need
First-year tackle Lucas Niang — who had started seven games at right tackle this season before losing his job to Remmers — is out for the Week 10 bout due to a ribs injury that sidelined him in the win over Green Bay. So, with no Remmers or Niang, the Chiefs will turn to Andrew Wylie — a four-year pro that has started 35 games in his career, 14 of which came last season with Kansas City at right guard, per Pro Football Reference.
Right tackle is clearly a concern for the Chiefs as they head into their first of two matchups against Las Vegas. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense will be squaring off against a defense that has defensive end Maxx Crosby, who has seven sacks and is sporting a 91.9 pass-rush grade from PFF, which is second highest in the NFL to only Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns (92.3). They also have Yannick Ngakoue, who is 13th in pass-rush grade by PFF off the edge.
Crosby can do a fair share of his damage attacking the right tackle position, which means Mahomes may struggle to have a clean pocket. That’s bad news for a unit that has been battling through a league-high 19 turnovers through the first nine weeks of the regular season, per ESPN.
Chiefs on Week 10 Raiders Game
Mahomes spoke about Kansas City’s first of two matchups against the Raiders this season, with the second happening in Week 14 at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Yeah you said it, I mean when you play the Raiders in their place, it’s a different atmosphere,” Mahomes said on Wednesday, November 10 during his presser. “I’m excited, I know Chiefs fans will be there supporting us and they always travel well, but there’s a different attitude and different mentality to these games against the Raiders. Obviously with them tied for first place in the division we understand it’s a huge week for us and we have to treat each and every day extremely important.
“Today at practice, we have to go detail to detail and make sure that we’re ready to go so that way by the end of the week, we can go out there and play free, play fast and try to find a way to win the game.”
The Chiefs enter Week 10 with a 5-4 record and in third place in the AFC West. The Raiders are 5-3 and are in second place. We are just past midway through the regular season, and the Chiefs have — including Week 10 — five divisional games left to play. That helps keep the team’s playoff hopes very much alive despite a rough start to the season, which included a loss to the division-rival Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3.
So, a win over Las Vegas in Week 10 would be a terrific and meaningful way to extend Kansas City’s current two-game win streak.