The Kansas City Chiefs’ Andy Reid finds himself wrapped in controversy after a former player for the franchise hit out at Chase Daniel after he declared they are “peaking at the right time” following their victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Daniel said Reid swears by the “don’t peak too soon” attitude to sport, and the former quarterback believes this philosophy is now in play as the Chiefs improve to 15-1 after 17 games of football.
A comfortable 29-10 triumph over the now 10-6 Steelers saw Patrick Mahomes toss for 320 yards and three touchdowns from 38 attempts, whilst he avoided being sacked and didn’t throw an interception either. More good news came their way too with another encouraging performance from the returning Hollywood Brown, whilst Travis Kelce got his third touchdown of the 2024/25 NFL season on December 25.
However, Mitchell Schwartz sternly disagrees with the application of “don’t peak too soon” in the Chiefs’ context as he insists that’s not actually what the phrase means. “That’s a total misrepresentation of the saying,” Schwartz, who played for the organization from 2016-2020, wrote to X.com (formerly Twitter). “‘Don’t peak too soon’, during a Saturday night speech, is about not wasting energy before the game.”
Daniel then tried to play it down by clarifying he was actually talking about the upcoming 2025/26 NFL season although Schwartz didn’t buy it and said he wasn’t invalidating Daniel’s own experience with Reid, who he played under at the Philadelphia Eagles.
Who do the Chiefs play next?
Now on a six-game winning run since their only defeat of the season against Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills (30-21), the Chiefs find themselves in fine form as they turn their attention to the NFL Playoffs after securing the home field advantage by topping the AFC Conference. It remains to be seen whether they will give the likes of Mahomes, Kelce and DeAndre Hopkins a break when they take on the AFC West’s Denver Broncos on January 5 to close out the regular season. The game will kick-off at 16:25 ET/13:25 PT at the Empower Field, live on CBS Sports.
