THE KANSAS CITY Chiefs' latest Super Bowl run began in earnest from the conference room of a Denver hotel. It was hours after a Week 18 loss to the Broncos -- a defeat that was all but expected after the Chiefs played mostly backups in the effort to rest starters -- and the team was stuck in town overnight due to heavy snow in the Kansas City area.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid laid out the No. 1 seed's bye week schedule, which came with a twist: The team would be off Monday through Wednesday and practice later in the week, a departure from the Chiefs' normal in-season bye week procedure.
Reid later said the schedule mirrored their 2022-23 postseason, when the Chiefs last held the No. 1 seed, "almost to a T."
But a team source sensed surprise in the room, perhaps because the ability to get some rest was so timely.
"I loved what he did," the source said. "It's a learned experience, or unique to our situation each year -- every year has different needs."
The Chiefs had good reason to run back their 2022 itinerary -- they're the only team that has parlayed a 1-seed into a Super Bowl title under the league's new playoff format. They beat the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC's 1-seed, in Super Bowl LVII in Arizona.
This season marks the fifth year since the NFL playoff bracket expanded to 14 teams in the 2020 season, isolating the 1-seeds as the only ones that receive postseason bye weeks. Previously, two teams in each conference got byes.
As the Chiefs were meeting at their Denver hotel, the Vikings and Lions played for the right to claim the 1-seed in the NFC. Minnesota lost, falling to the 5-seed and a first-round road game on wild-card week.
Securing the No. 1 seed was a yearlong goal for Lions head coach Dan Campbell.
"You come out of that game and feel like it gives you the best odds to get to where the ultimate goal is, which is, as well all know what the prize is, and that's the Super Bowl," Campbell said.
But the bye week has hardly proven to be a clear path to a championship.
NO. 1 SEEDS have a playoff record of 11-7 (61.1 win percentage) since 2020, with the 2023 Ravens, 2021 Packers, 2021 Titans and 2020 Packers all failing to reach the Super Bowl from the top perch. Super Bowl LVI after the 2021 season featured two 4-seeds, the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. The previous season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rallied from the 5-seed in 2020 to win it all.
Super Bowl LVII after the 2022 season is the only game under the new format that featured two 1-seeds, the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The NFC's four No. 1 seeds since the format was altered (the Packers in 2020 and 2021, the Eagles in 2022 and the 49ers in 2023) all lost to a worse seed in the playoffs.
From 2002 to 2019, No. 1 seeds held a 51-29 record (63.8 win percentage) in the playoffs. Seven of them won the Super Bowl.
Though the Chiefs are accustomed to the process, recent 1-seeds admit that guarding against coming out flat because of too much rest is a real concern.
The Tennessee Titans were in an unfamiliar spot by the end of the 2021 season -- having the No. 1 seed, thanks to a 12-5 record. The Titans had failed to win 10 or more games for 11 straight seasons before coach Mike Vrabel led Tennessee to 23 combined wins from 2020 to 2021, and earned the top seed after being a No. 4 seed the previous year.
Tennessee started the bye week with a few technique-driven practices, a high-ranking official from that team recalled, followed by a heavier workload through Thursday and a few days off on the back end.
Not only was Tennessee trying to maintain intensity while keeping a relatively depleted roster healthy, but it was also adhering to the league's COVID-19 protocols. One of the team's coordinators was confined to a hotel room for three-plus days to start the week due to testing positive for COVID.
Those challenges aside, a team that started games slowly for much of the year was motivated to get off to a fast start in the divisional round. But the weekend setup made some in the building uneasy.
"You've got a weekend when you aren't doing anything," the Titans official recalled. "It takes you out of your normal rhythm a bit. And even if you had a game that week, you can rest your veterans during the week, anyways."
Though the Titans' defense was not flat in the divisional round against Cincinnati, sacking Joe Burrow nine times, the offense hardly resembled that of a No. 1 seed. Ryan Tannehill threw three interceptions and Derrick Henry, having just returned to the lineup after a nine-game absence due to a broken foot, averaged 3.1 yards per carry.
"We were just off offensively," the official said. "Maybe that would have happened anyway, but it came at the worst time."
Added a coach from that staff: "I prefer to continue playing (than having the bye). It keeps you on the same schedule and you don't over plan. You can have too much time to game-plan."
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THE CURSE OF "too much time" doesn't offset two key benefits that 1-seeds earn: injury prevention and the expedited path to a title that comes with one fewer game.
Just ask the Chiefs, who have all but mastered the bye week. Kansas City won Super Bowls after holding the 1-seeds in 2019 and 2022. In 2020, the Chiefs reached the Super Bowl as a 1-seed but lost to the Bucs.
"It's essentially like winning a playoff game," a Chiefs source said. "It's rest, recovery and not getting someone injured for the next game. If you have a veteran group and the leadership to handle that well, it should work to your advantage."
A key component of that advantage is Reid, known as an excellent planner. For example, even though the Chiefs had played all four possible divisional round opponents leading into last weekend, Reid said "you can't be content" with what you've already seen and must dig back into the game tape from many if not all of their games.
The Chiefs also rely heavily on self-scouting tendencies, going deeper on plays or concepts that are evergreen and effective against any opponent.
"We've tried to hammer those out, continue to do that until we find out what the results are Sunday night," Reid said. "We [were] going to try to be ready for all of [the potential opponents] since we have this time."
Despite their perennial role as a heavy favorite, the Chiefs say they try to keep the mentality of a 7-seed during weeks like this, clinging to core tenets that combat complacency. They remind themselves that players should never assume they'll be back in the playoffs next year. Kansas City tells its young players that relative unknowns can enjoy a star turn in the playoffs, such as Green Bay wide receiver Romeo Doubs, who finished with 151 receiving yards against Dallas in last year's wild-card round. And they tell players that momentum can be thrown out once the playoffs begin.
"Home-field advantage doesn't mean much once you kick it off," a member of the Chiefs staff said.
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OTHER SPORTS OFFER anecdotal data that calls into question the impact of the first-round bye. The four teams with byes in this season's College Football Playoff went 0-4 in the quarterfinals. The 2023 MLB playoffs saw the teams with first-round byes go 1-3 in the divisional round, including the two 1-seeds (Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles) getting wiped out in the first round against opponents that had to play in the wild-card round. Conversely, the 2024 MLB playoffs produced a World Series meeting of 1-seeds, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.
A 1-seed in the NFL has never been more exclusive than in the past five years. Longtime fans of this season's second-seeded Eagles (14-3) and Buffalo Bills (13-4) can think back to the days when such seasons would have earned a bye.
The Eagles basically treated Week 18 as a bye week in 2024, which wasn't an easy decision. With Saquon Barkley within range of Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, playing the starters on offense would have been good for fan sentiments and entertainment.
The Eagles' staff talked at length about the pros and cons. One prevailing theme emerged. "We were beat up," a team source said. "We needed the rest. Everybody knew it was the right thing (to sit)."
The decision paid off in the short term. The Eagles beat the Giants with mostly backups in Week 18, still conducted a normal practice week, then watched their fresh starters beat Green Bay 22-10 in the wild-card round Sunday.
With the No. 2 seed already locked up, the Eagles say they maintained the momentum of a 14-3 season while getting the kind of rest reserved for 1-seeds.
"It was a nice bridge for us," the source said.
Most people interviewed for this story said they preferred the previous two-byes-per-conference format, but reverting to that setup doesn't seem viable for the league. As CBS Sports recently reported, the next playoff tweak might focus on rewarding better records during wild-card weekend. Currently, divisional winners occupy the top-four seeds in each conference, despite wild-card teams holding a better record in three of last weekend's matchups. The league could reportedly flip that setup to reward the best record.
Perhaps an 18-game schedule, which feels like an inevitability, could reopen talks about the number of byes.
"But that would be a bloodbath," said an executive from a team that once had a 1-seed about an 18-game schedule.
That's not Campbell's problem. His now-famous comment to Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell that he'll "'see you in two weeks" was offered from the comfort of Ford Field, which he won't leave for the remainder of the NFC playoff bracket.
"You try to set yourself up the best you can and that's why you put these goals out there," Campbell said. "So, yeah, it's been there for a while, so certainly this is something we want to do and we've had on our minds -- division and 1-seed and all that, and it's right here in our hands."