this kansas city The Chiefs' recent Super Bowl officially began in a Denver hotel conference room. It was hours after a Week 18 loss to the Broncos — a defeat that was almost expected as the Chiefs rested their starters largely with backup players — and the team was completely unprepared due to heavy snowfall in Kansas City. Trapped in the city at night. area.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid laid out the bye week schedule for the No. 1 seed, with one change: The team will have Monday through Wednesday off and practice later in the week, consistent with a normal Chiefs season Bye week procedures are different.

Reid later said the schedule mirrored their 2022-23 playoff run, when the Chiefs last held the No. 1 seed, "almost to a T."

But a team source in the room was surprised, perhaps by being able to take a break in time.

"I love what he's doing," the source said. “It’s a learned experience, or our situation is unique every year — there are different needs every year.”

The Chiefs have good reason to delay their 2022 schedule -- they're the only team to win a Super Bowl as a No. 1 seed under the league's new playoff format. They defeated the NFC's No. 1 seed, the Philadelphia Eagles, in Super Bowl LLVII in Arizona.

This season marks the fifth year since the NFL playoffs expanded to 14 teams in the 2020 season, with the No. 1 seed becoming the only team to receive a postseason bye week. Previously, two teams from each division had byes.

As the Chiefs meet at a Denver hotel, the Vikings and Lions are vying for the NFC's No. 1 seed. Minnesota lost to the fifth seed in its first-round road game during wild-card week.

Securing the No. 1 seed has been a year-long goal for Lions head coach Dan Campbell.

"You come out of this game feeling like it gives you the best chance to get to the end goal, which is, everybody knows what the prize is, and that's the Super Bowl," Campbell said.

But the bye week hasn't proven to be a clear path to a championship.

No. 1 seed Since 2020, the playoff record is 11-7 (61.1 winning percentage), with the 2023 Ravens, 2021 Packers, 2021 Titans and 2020 Packers all failing to advance from the top spot to the Super Bowl. Super Bowl LVI following the 2021 season features two fourth-seeded teams: the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. Last season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rallied from their 2020 No. 5 seed to win it all.

Super Bowl 57 at the end of the 2022 season is the only game under the new format to feature the two No. 1 seeds, the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. Since the format change, the NFC's four top-seeded teams (the Packers in 2020 and 2021, the Eagles in 2022 and the 49ers in 2023) have all lost in the playoffs to worse seeds. Team.

From 2002 to 2019, the No. 1 seed maintained a record of 51 wins and 29 losses (63.8 winning percentage) in the playoffs. Seven of them won a Super Bowl.

While the Chiefs are used to the process, the recent No. 1 seed acknowledged that preventing mediocre performances from resting too much is a real concern.

By the end of the 2021 season, the Tennessee Titans were in an unfamiliar position - a No. 1 seed with a 12-5 record. The Titans had failed to win 10 or more games for 11 consecutive seasons before head coach Mike Vrabel led Tennessee to 23 wins between 2020 and 2021 and the previous year. Became the No. 1 seed after becoming the No. 4 seed.

Tennessee started the bye week with some skill-driven drills, followed by a heavier workload on Thursday and a few days of rest on the back end, a senior official recalled.

Not only is Tennessee trying to maintain intensity while keeping a relatively depleted roster healthy, but it's also adhering to the league's COVID-19 protocols. One of the team's coordinators was confined to a hotel room for more than three days starting this week due to a positive coronavirus test.

Those challenges aside, a team that's been off to a slow start for much of the year is motivated to get off to a fast start in the divisional round. But the weekend's schedule has some in the building uneasy.

“You had a weekend to do nothing,” the Titans official recalled. "It takes you a little bit out of your normal rhythm. Even if you have a game that week, you can rest your veterans during the week anyway."

While the Titans' defense was uneven in the divisional round against Cincinnati, sacking Joe Burrow nine times, the offense was nowhere near the performance of the No. 1 seed. Ryan Tannehill had three interceptions and Derrick Henry, who just returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a foot injury, averaged 3.1 yards per carry.

"We just started attacking," the official said. "Maybe this would have happened anyway, but it couldn't have come at a worse time."

One coach on the staff added: "I prefer to keep playing (rather than having byes). It keeps you on the same schedule and you don't overschedule. You might have too much time to plan Contest."

curse "Too much time" doesn't negate the two key benefits of being a No. 1 seed: injury prevention and a faster path to a championship with one less game.

Just ask the Chiefs, who have pretty much dominated the bye week. Kansas City won the Super Bowl in 2019 and 2022 as a No. 1 seed. In 2020, the Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl as the No. 1 seed but lost to the Buccaneers.

"It's essentially like winning a playoff game," a Chiefs source said. "It's about rest, recovery, and not getting someone injured in the next game. If you have an experienced team and leadership to handle that, it should work in your favor."

A key component of this advantage was Reed, who was known as an excellent planner. For example, even though the Chiefs had played all four possible division opponents before last weekend, Reid said "you can't rest on what you've seen" and have to mine game footage from many, if not all their game.

The Chiefs also rely heavily on their self-scout tendencies, delving into plays or concepts that are evergreen and effective against any opponent.

"We've done our best to finalize those issues and will continue to do so until we know the outcome Sunday night," Reed said. "We're going to try to be ready for all (potential opponents) since we have this time."

While the Chiefs have been heavy favorites for years, they said they try to maintain a seventh-seed mentality during weeks like this, adhering to core principles of fighting complacency. They remind themselves that players should never think they'll be back in the playoffs next year. Kansas City is telling young players that relatively unknown players can have star turns in the postseason, like Green Bay wide receiver Romeo Doubs, who played in last year's wild-card game against the Dallas Mavericks Gained 151 receiving yards. They tell players that the momentum will disappear once the playoffs begin.

“Home-field advantage doesn’t mean much once the game starts,” a Chiefs staffer said.

Other sports offers Some anecdotal data calls into question the impact of a first-round bye. The four teams that received byes in the College Football Playoff this season are 0-4 in the quarterfinals. In the 2023 MLB Playoffs, teams with first-round byes went 1-3 in the division, with two No. 1 seeds (Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles) forced to play in the Wild in the first round The opponent is eliminated - stuck round. Instead, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, the No. 1 seed in the World Series, met in the 2024 MLB playoffs.

The NFL's No. 1 seed has never been more unique over the past five years. Longtime fans of this season's second-seeded Eagles (14-3) and Buffalo Bills (13-4) can recall the days when the season was supposed to be byes.

The Eagles are essentially treating Week 18 as a bye week in 2024, which won't be an easy decision. With Saquon Barkley in the range of Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, having the starters run the offense is good for fan sentiment and entertainment.

Eagles staff discussed the pros and cons in detail. A popular theme emerged. "We were beaten," a team source said. "We needed a break. Everybody knew (sitting) was the right thing to do."

The decision paid off in the short term. The Eagles defeated the backup-heavy Giants in Week 18, still had a normal week of practice, then watched their new starters beat Green Bay 22-10 in Sunday's wild-card round.

With the No. 2 seed already locked up, the Eagles said they maintained momentum on a 14-3 season while getting the break reserved for the No. 1 seed.

"This is a good bridge for us," the source said.

Most people interviewed said they preferred the previous two-bye-per-conference format, but returning to that setup doesn't seem feasible for the league. As CBS Sports recently reported, the next postseason shakeup will likely focus on rewarding better records during wild-card weekend. The conference champions currently occupy the top four seeds in each conference, although the wild-card teams held the better record through three games last weekend. According to reports, the league may change this setting to reward the best record.

Perhaps an 18-game schedule (which feels like an inevitability) could reopen the conversation about byes.

"But it's going to be a bloodbath," said an executive from a No. 1 seed that once had an 18-game schedule.

This isn't Campbell's problem. His now-famous comment to Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell, "See you in two weeks," was made in the comfort of Ford Field, where he won't be leaving for the remainder of the NFC playoffs Contest.

"You try to be the best you can be and that's why you put those goals out there," Campbell said. "So, yeah, it's been around for a while, so it's certainly something we want to do and we It's already being considered - divisions and No. 1 seeds and all that, and it's in our hands."