The Kansas City Chiefs’ schedule will be released on Wednesday night. The full schedule is unclear, but the Denver Broncos will be on it twice as an AFC West opponent.
The Broncos are 1-13 against the Chiefs in the Patrick Mahomes era, with their lone win coming in October of 2023. During an appearance on the “DNVR Broncos podcast,” longtime Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said he wanted someone on the Broncos to hit Mahomes and send a message, even if it meant drawing a penalty.
“Keep Mahomes in the pocket,” Harris said. “Don’t let this guy get out running, scrambling like he does late in games. And I dare one of those guys to hit him. Please. Somebody has to send a message in that game. You might get a penalty, right? You never know, but we used to kind of send those messages. … With (Tom) Brady, we hit this guy damn near 20 times.”
The Chiefs have built a reputation for getting some “soft” calls go in their favor. Last season, the discourse around roughing the passer penalties getting called for Mahomes was at an all-time high. However, telling a team to hit him hard just to send a message seems excessive. Regardless of anyone’s opinion of Mahomes, the roughing penalties are in place to protect the quarterback.
One can acknowledge that perhaps the Chiefs have gotten some generous calls. However, combating that by blatantly going after a player may not be the best course of action. There was an era in the NFL where the rules were looser on tackling and hitting the quarterback. However, that is not the way things work now.
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Harris, who played for the Broncos from 2011-2019, was a four-time Pro Bowler, one-time All-Pro and Super Bowl champion with the team. He won just one game against the Chiefs after Mahomes became the starter, and it came in 2020 as a member of the Los Angeles Chargers. However, Mahomes did not even play in the game as the Chiefs were 14-1 going into it.
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