Jamie Squire/Getty Images. Pictured: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
The Patrick Mahomes Watch is on.
Whether or not the Kansas City Chiefs’ star quarterback plays on Sunday is the story of the week, at least when it comes to unknowns.
The Tom Brady-Aaron Rodgers narrative is great, as is Buffalo’s return to the conference championship game for the first time since 1993. But the defending Super Bowl champions — and current favorite — potentially missing their quarterback trumps all.
Mahomes left Sunday’s game against the Chiefs after being tackled, landing on his head and having his neck pulled in an awkward manner. Mahomes was slow to get up before stumbling and was clearly shaken by the hit.
We’re tracking the latest news and how it correlates to line movement in the betting market all week.
Line Movement
It started on Sunday when Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas released lookahead lines making the Chiefs a 4-point favorite over the Bills. That was before Mahomes went down with an apparent concussion.
DraftKings opened the first line post-injury with the Bills a 1.5-point favorite and the total at 50.5.
By Monday, the line had reached Chiefs -3 with a total of 54.5. On Tuesday morning, the line was back to Chiefs -2.5 with a total of 50.
As always, follow our real-time odds here.
What They’re Saying
Andy Reid chose his words carefully, trying to avoid the word “concussion” in his post-game press conference.
“He’s doing great right now, which is a real positive as we looked at this,” Reid told reporters. “He passed all the deals he needed to pass. So we’ll see where it goes from here.”
FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer expressed optimism, also avoiding “concussion” following the game.
“The thought is he will be OK to play,” he said. “It was almost like he got choked out. Not so much a concussion but still has to go through protocol. He was trying to get himself back in the game. There’s a lot of confidence he’ll be ready to go next week.”
There was no avoiding it, however. Mahomes was officially placed into concussion protocol on Tuesday.
“We’ll just follow that and see how he does here the next couple days,” Reid said.