The Kansas City Chiefs have an opportunity to deliver a pretty significant Christmas present with a win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday.
Taking the field for a noon matchup against an AFC West rival, Andy Reid’s club is a victory away from locking up the AFC West division for the eighth year in a row. Additionally, a win keeps Kansas City’s hopes for the No. 1 seed in the conference alive. The visiting Raiders are still in the hunt as well, so this is shaping up to be a thrilling outing between two opponents who are quite familiar with one another.
Multiple players were ruled out in advance of this week’s game. Injuries, as expected, are factoring into every team’s plans at this late stage of the season. As attrition continues to set in for everyone, the goal of both sides will be to escape Week 16 as healthy as they came in. Ahead of their outing back at home, the Chiefs’ list of inactive players has been released. Here’s who won’t suit up for Kansas City:
Over the weekend, the Chiefs announced that a few offensive contributors would be out for Monday. Perhaps the most notable news is that running back Jerick McKinnon is now on the injured reserve list. The veteran halfback will miss Kansas City’s last three regular season games and then its first postseason contest at a minimum with a nagging groin injury. Elsewhere, wide receiver Kadarius Toney’s hip injury is holding him out of Week 16, left tackle Donovan Smith isn’t ready to return from his neck ailment and wideout Mecole Hardman (thumb) wasn’t activated off IR. Second-year receiver Skyy Moore was placed on IR last Monday.
The rest of the Chiefs’ inactives don’t feature many surprises. One key note pertains to the interior defensive line rotation, though. Defensive tackle Matt Dickerson is inactive for the second week in a row, paving the way for Mike Pennel to once again take his spot in the lineup. Pennel played 12 defensive snaps in last week’s win over the New England Patriots, recording one tackle in the process.
Las Vegas ruled out two players before Monday: tight ends Michael Mayer and Jesper Horsted. Five others were deemed questionable, with running back Josh Jacobs being the biggest name of that group. The fifth-year man carried a quad/illness designation into Monday’s game and it was revealed on the morning of the game that he’d be inactive on Christmas. As a result, the Raiders’ offense will be tasked with scoring enough to take down the Chiefs in hostile territory while being a bit shorthanded.
