Chiefs HC Andy Reid Breaks Down Kansas City’s 2026 Schedule

Schedule release morning is a holiday in football, and Andy Reid just got handed his 14th one in Kansas City.

The Chiefs head coach joined Rich the day after the 2026 schedule dropped, and the breakdown started exactly where Reid's eyes went first.

"I looked at obviously the first game, which is a great one, great rivalry game with the Denver Broncos on Monday night," Reid said. "Can't get any better than that."

From there, Reid said the muscle memory takes over. Find the bye. Find the night games. Find the Thursdays.

"In our case, a couple of Thursday games, actually back-to-back Thursday games," Reid said. "We're playing on Thanksgiving, which I think people already know about, so that's always a good time too."

Rich pressed him on the timing. Two night games and a bye in the first five weeks. Does he like a Week 5 bye?

Reid waved off the question almost as a personal philosophy.

"You know, I'm kind of nutty about that," Reid said. "Whoever we're playing, we play. Whenever we play them, we play them. I don't get caught up too much on what it looks like or doesn't look like. These are all good football teams at this level, and you got to play them somewhere and sometime."

When pressed for the actual benefit of an early bye, Reid put it in practical terms.

"You just came out of a long training camp," Reid said. "You have an opportunity to play four games against good opponents, and so you take that time and you kind of rekindle it up."

He pointed to a second built-in breather later. The Chiefs get a 10-day mini-bye between their back-to-back Thursday games before the Cincinnati Bengals.

The middle of the schedule is the heaviest part. Weeks 12 through 14 stack the Thanksgiving game and a Thursday-night-after-Thanksgiving against another Turkey Day team, with the road piece running through the Rams, Buffalo and Cincinnati. Three road games in a row, sandwiched around the mini-bye.

"They're all three really good football teams," Reid said. "That to me kind of charges it up. You don't have to say much to the guys about getting fired up. The teams that you're playing are explosive football teams on both sides of the ball, as special teams for that matter, and that fires you up."

Then Reid landed the line that earned a laugh from Rich.

"We'll go play in the McDonald's parking lot, as long as they're giving out cheeseburgers," Reid said.

Rich pivoted to the close of the season. The defending AFC champion New England Patriots at home on Monday night. San Francisco the week after. A trip to the Chargers. The Raiders at home in Week 18.

The takeaway, Reid said, is that you do not get to coast.

"You better be ready to go all the way through this season," Reid said. "You finish with two AFC West opponents, so you better not relax. Those two teams right there, they make sure that you don't do that."

His read on his own roster is that the message will land without much effort.

"The guys see that, they understand it," Reid said. "They know how the season goes. It's a long season. A lot of things can happen. There are always ups and downs, and you just keep pounding forward."