Five Things We Learned from Andy Reid on Wednesday

The Kansas City Chiefs (11-4) have begun preparations for Sunday’s tilt with the Oakland Raiders (4-11), which takes place Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium (kickoff is set for 3:25 pm CT).

The Chiefs can win a third-straight AFC West division title and claim the AFC’s top overall seed with a victory.

With that said, here are five things that stood out from Andy Reid’s Wednesday press conference:

1. Reid spoke about receiver Sammy Watkins, who hasn’t appeared in a game since the Week 11 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams because of a foot injury.

“Sammy (Watkins) will not practice today. Sammy had been in a cast-boot just as a preventative measure—all part of the recovery. Doctors just wanted to settle it down. They felt the best way to do that was put him in a cast. He’s out of the cast moving around and just going through the rehab process of getting back. Again, he’s not going to practice today but he is making progress.”

Watkins has 40 receptions for 519 yards with three touchdowns this season.

2. Reid spoke about veteran safety Eric Berry, who played 69 snaps for the Chiefs’ defense against the Seahawks last Sunday but was limited as he’s still working his way back after missing so much time. Reid was asked if it was a tough decision to hold to the “pitch count” even when the game is close.

“I don’t think twice about that. You got to go off of his feel. He hasn’t played in two years, I’m aware of that. I don’t want to take any steps backward and neither does he. We understand that and with the extended drives that we had the snaps came up. He had every intention of going into the fourth quarter but there was only so many snaps he can take right now. He’s easing back into it. I have full trust in him, it’s not a matter of that. If he could have gone a half, we would have gone a half.”

Berry finished Sunday’s game with five tackles, and he ultimately missed just 11 snaps as the 69 snaps he played were out of a total of 80 available for the defense.