1. Kansas City Chiefs at Chicago Bears, December 22nd
As far as the schedule should be concerned, this is the game of the year. It’s almost unfortunate that this game is so late in the season. This game feels like it would have a lot more juice behind it if it was in October or perhaps early November.
The danger with week 16 is that it’s possible that one of these two teams could go on a tear through the regular season and be sitting with a phenomenal record and nothing to play for.
If the Chiefs (I’ll use Chiefs, not Bears as to avoid sounding like a homer) are sitting at 12-2 and the New England Patriots are at 10-4 and the Chiefs won their regular season matchup, they may have zero to play for and Patrick Mahomes may only play a half, who knows.
But the NFL is going to roll the dice that these two teams will still have something to play for and if that’s the case, it’ll be a really fun event. It’ll be Matt Nagy facing his mentor in Andy Reid. It’ll be Mitch Trubisky squaring off against first round-mate Patrick Mahomes. It’ll be the Chiefs high-powered offense against the Bears’ stingy defense.
There are so many storylines. Circle this game, folks. It’ll be a lot of fun.