Andy Reid Gets Off Very on-Brand Joke About Chiefs' 2026 Schedule

Outrage has echoed from Mile High about the Denver Broncos having to open their 2026 season in Kansas City.

Fans and pundits believe the Broncos earned the right to host the Chiefs in Week 1 because they won the AFC West last season. NFL scheduling has never worked like that, so the Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs will play the first “Monday Night Football” game of next season at Arrowhead Stadium on Sept. 14.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid could not care less about the semantics of schedule talk in May.

Reid joined “The Rich Eisen Show” on Friday and was asked about the Chiefs’ tough three-game road trip later in the season. The Chiefs will play at Buffalo on Thanksgiving in Week 12 before traveling to play the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13 and the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14.

“It doesn’t matter the days or where you play, it’s the teams that you’re playing [that] are explosive football teams on both sides of the ball - and special teams, for that matter,” Reid said. “That fires you up, so it really doesn’t matter. Listen, we’ll go play in the McDonald’s parking lot. As long as they’re giving out cheeseburgers, right? We’re ready to go.”

Reid has made cheeseburgers part of his brand for years, especially in the eight years since Patrick Mahomes became his quarterback and the three-time Super Bowl-winning Chiefs became the NFL’s modern dynasty. After beating Seattle on Christmas Eve in 2022, Mahomes and Travis Kelce gifted Reid a cheeseburger in the locker room.

The Chiefs didn’t feel like joking about cheeseburgers last season, however. Kansas City stumbled to a 6-11 record, the franchise’s worst mark since Reid arrived in 2013, and missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2014 season. To make matters bleaker, Mahomes tore his ACL and LCL on Dec. 14.

The expectation is for Mahomes to be ready to start Week 1 against the Broncos. The NFL signaled its confidence in Mahomes’ rehabilitation timeline by featuring the Chiefs in the first “Monday Night Football” game of the year.

The Chiefs will play six primetime games in 2026.

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 4:21 PM.