Health could be difference for Patriots vs. Chiefs in AFC Championship
By Cody Rivera
For one of the few times this year, the Patriots will be fully healthy as they head into the AFC Championship Game.
Despite the fact that the New England Patriots have seen endless success for almost two decades, managing to be at full strength has been a very rare feat for them. They’ve always been able to get by as long as quarterback Tom Brady has been healthy, but actually having everybody they are supposed to have at their position has never been easy for them.
That won’t be the case this Sunday, however, as the Patriots head to Arrowhead Stadium to meet the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. The last remaining player on their injury report, defensive end Deatrich Wise, was finally removed this week.
As New England gets ready to face its toughest challenge of the season, it will be doing it with a clean bill of health — and that isn’t good news for Kansas City. At full strength, the Patriots will give the Chiefs all they can handle.
As for Brady, he might not have the vast array of weapons he’s had in the past, such as Randy Moss and Wes Welker. But that has never been an issue for the 41-year-old quarterback. Nobody has ever been better at doing more with less than Brady. The pieces that he does have are at full strength, and that includes Julian Edelman, James White and Sony Michel (who has struggled with injuries off and on throughout the season).
Even though the Patriots haven’t used tight end Rob Gronkowski this year as much as they have in the past, he will be on the field too, and this would be a great time for him to have a breakout game.
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New England might be lacking the explosiveness that Kansas City possesses with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and weapons like Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. But the important thing for the Patriots is that they have a completely healthy roster, and Brady will get all he needs out of what he has to work with.
And that alone is enough to give them a very good chance of upsetting the top-seeded Chiefs.