Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is listed with a new issue on Wednesday’s injury report but it did not affect his practice time.
Kansas City listed Mahomes as a full participant in the day’s session with a knee injury.
Last week, Mahomes was listed as a full participant on all three reports with a groin issue.
Mahomes has completed 64.6 percent of his passes for 3,238 yards with 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions so far in 2025. He’s also rushed for 348 yards with four TDs.
As noted by head coach Andy Reid earlier in the day, cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace, guard Trey Smith (ankle), and right tackle Jawaan Taylor (triceps/knee) all did not participate on Wednesday.
Safety Bryan Cook (ankle), tight end Noah Gray (concussion/shoulder), safety Jaden Hicks (shoulder), defensive end George Karlaftis (thumb), running back Isiah Pacheco (knee), receiver Nikko Remigio (shoulder), and receiver Rashee Rice (hamstring) were all full.
Chiefs Clips
The Chiefs have made a roster move with injured left tackle Josh Simmons.
Head coach Andy Reid told reporters during his Wednesday press conference that Simmons underwent successful surgery on his dislocated wrist and is being placed on injured reserve.
That means Simmons is out for at least the next four weeks.
The Chiefs currently have multiple injury issues along their offensive line, as right tackle Jawaan Taylor is also dealing with a triceps injury and left guard Trey Smith has ankle and back injuries. Neither Taylor nor Smith will practice on Wednesday.
If Taylor is not available, Wanya Morris will start at left tackle with Jaylon Moore slotting in at right tackle. Moore previously started at left tackle during Simmons’ absence from the team this season for a personal matter.
Kansas City defensive back Chris Roland-Wallace (back) also is not slated to practice on Wednesday.
As a corresponding move for Simmons going on IR, the Chiefs are signing Esa Pole to the 53-man roster from the practice squad.
From the moment the 2025 schedule was announced, it was obvious that the Chiefs-Cowboys Thanksgiving game would break the all-time regular-season audience record.
It obliterated it.
According to CBS, 57.23 million viewers, on average, watched the game. It surpassed the prior record of 42.1 million, set by the Giants and Cowboys on Thanksgiving 2022, by 36 percent.
Viewership peaked at 61.357 million during the 15-minute period of 7:45 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET.
The game had all the ingredients to set a new record. Captive audience. Captivating franchises. National brands. Star players. And two teams trying to thread a narrowing needle on a playoff berth.
And, yes, the numbers got a boost from the “Big Data + Panel” metric, which captures out-of-home viewing better than ever before. Which bodes well for the remaining high-stakes, standalone regular-season games — and for the playoff contests in a year that should have a wide-open postseason.
Good things are worth waiting for.
And the NFL, CBS, and Fox are still waiting for the official Nielsen numbers from last Thursday’s captive audience games, both of which were inherently captivating.
Via Jon Lewis of SportsMediaWatch.com, the Thanksgiving Day ratings are expected to be released today.
It’s a product of the new “Big Data + Panel” approach (they really do need a better name for that), a revolutionary way to calculate out-of-home viewing that has goosed most numbers by 10 percent. It has created a slew of big audiences this year, which also sets a bar that won’t be easy to exceed in 2026. But that process takes time; the “fast-nationals” from Nielsen will inevitably be lower than the final numbers.
And so, for what could be record audiences, they’re waiting for the final numbers.
It’s widely expected that last Thursday’s Chiefs-Cowboys game will generate the largest audience for any regular-season game in NFL history. And it’s possible the Packers-Lions from that same day will finish second on the all-time list, passing the current record of 42.1 million.
And then there’s the reality that the whole process seems amorphous, with the vague potential of someone, somewhere putting a thumb on the scale. That’s the practical impact of YouTube suddenly announcing higher numbers for the disappointing free stream of the Week 1 Chiefs-Chargers game from Brazil.
It’s been a long time since Andy Reid and the Chiefs have found themselves with such long odds of making the playoffs as the ones they have right now, but there aren’t any signs of white flags being flown by the head coach in Kansas City.
Reid said on Monday that he feels the team has been a few plays away from turning most of their losses into victories and that the focus will be on tightening up their execution in those situations because they are still “in position where if we can figure out those two, three plays, you flip this around.”
“If you’re coming to me, we’re going to go after you every game, and that’s how we roll,” Reid said, via Dave Skretta of the Associated Press. “We’re going to tickle your tonsils on every play, every game. But that’s the attitude we’re coming in with, and then you let the chips fall where they may.”
At 6-6, the Chiefs are in a deep enough hole that simply winning their next five games won’t be enough to guarantee them a spot in the postseason tournament. It would be a pretty good place to start any push, however, and next Sunday night’s game against the Texans is the first must-win game for the defending AFC champions.
The Texans got quarterback C.J. Stroud back in the lineup for Sunday’s game Colts and they got the result they were looking for against the Colts.
Houston’s 20-16 win extended their winning streak to four games and kept them in the mix for the AFC South title if they can continue stacking victories. Stroud was 22-of-35 for 276 yards and an interception in the game and said he “knocked off some rust” that accumulated while he was out for three games with a concussion.
Stroud said that he felt he got “rolling” as that rust fell away and that he thinks the Texans can continue to turn around a season that opened with losses in their first three games.
“We’re super dangerous,” Stroud said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “We lost some close games against some really good teams. If we can find a way to win some close games after Thanksgiving, we’ll put ourselves in position to do whatever we want.”
Stroud and the Texans will be in Kansas City next Sunday night for a game that is crucial to the playoff hopes of both teams, so Houston will need a rust-free performance from their quarterback if they want to keep rising after their early stumbles.
The Chiefs’ run of 10 consecutive seasons making the playoffs is likely to come to an end, if the betting odds are to be believed.
The odds of the Chiefs missing the playoffs are now -120, compared to odds of making the playoffs at +100, according to DraftKings.
The Chiefs’ Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys has changed the math on their chances of making the playoffs. At 6-6, Patrick Mahomes says the Chiefs have to win every game and hope that’s enough. Even if they finish 11-6, it’s not a guarantee the Chiefs would make the playoffs.
The Chiefs certainly could win all five of their remaining games, which include home games against the Texans, Chargers and Broncos, and road games against the Titans and Raiders. But their record says they’re a .500 team. And a team that’s unlikely to make the playoffs.
If the Chiefs want to make the postseason, they’re going to have to spend the rest of the regular season in playoff mode.
Thursday’s 31-28 loss to the Cowboys dropped the team to 6-6 on the season and kept them on the outside looking in at the playoff race in the AFC. Given how many teams there are between them and a safe spot in the postseason pecking order, winning out isn’t a guarantee that they’ll be able to keep playing before Week 18 but quarterback Patrick Mahomes said that’s the only thing the team can do at this point.
“You’ve got to win every game now and hope that’s enough,” Mahomes said in his postgame press conference. “We’re going to play a lot of good teams coming up. If we’re going to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to win them all. That’s got to be the mindset when we step into the building when we get back.”
Mahomes also pointed out the reason why it’s hard to believe these Chiefs are capable of that kind of run. Mahomes said the Chiefs have “to be consistent for four quarters” to put together that kind of winning streak and their record shows that consistency has not been something they can rely on in Kansas City.
The Chiefs will not have their left tackle for the foreseeable future.
Per Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Josh Simmons suffered a dislocated and fractured wrist during Thursday’s loss to the Cowboys.
While he will receive an MRI on Friday to help determine a course of treatment, he is considered out indefinitely.
Simmons exited AT&T Stadium in a cast.
Simmons, the No. 32 overall pick of this year’s draft, missed several games while dealing with a personal matter in California earlier this year. He returned for the Week 11 loss to Denver, starting Kansas City’s last three games.
Jaylon Moore started at left tackle in Simmons’ stead during his absence and would presumably take over at the spot again.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has already earned a first-ballot bronze bust. But he surely wants more.
This year, more may not be in the cards.
A Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys has dropped the Chiefs to 6-6, with five games to play. While they’re not officially done, they may have to run the table in order to get an invitation to the playoff party.
The remaining schedule looks like this: Texans, Chargers, at Titans, Broncos, at Raiders. Two games should be easy wins. As to the other three, who knows?
“If we’re gonna make the playoffs,” Mahomes told reporters after the game, “we’re gonna have to win them all.”
Winning out will definitely make it easier; an 11-6 finish should be good enough to get one of the seven AFC postseason spots. The problem becomes tiebreakers. They’ve lost to the Chargers, Jaguars, Bills, and Broncos. A tie for the seventh spot with any of them will knock the Chiefs out.
The Week 5 Monday night loss in Jacksonville could come back to haunt the Chiefs. If the Jaguars beat the Titans on Sunday, they’ll have a two-game lead over the Chiefs, along with a tiebreaker fueled by the bizarre play from quarterback Trevor Lawrence, where he fell down twice before running in for a game-winning touchdown.
Again, the Chiefs are still alive. But these Chiefs look nothing like the Chiefs have looked since 2018.
Those Chiefs wouldn’t be 6-6. And those Chiefs would have found a way to beat the Cowboys today.
