Chiefs HC Andy Reid explained his caution with Patrick Mahomes following his injury

The Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last Saturday in the divisional round added more postseason memories. Arrowhead Stadium was buzzing, but that buzz changed to concern when Patrick Mahomes went down with a high ankle sprain at the end of the first quarter.

Mahomes was visibly anxious and frustrated for not being able to go back into the game as many watching wondered about the severity of his injury. Head coach Andy Reid was responsible for the call to put Chad Henne in the game and forced Mahomes to get further medical attention. He addressed this decision while speaking as a guest on Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald, and Jim Gray’s Sirius XM show ‘Let’s Go.’

“I mean, you, you love the grit, but sometimes you got to try to protect the player from the player too,” said Reid. “So these guys are wired different, Jim; I mean that you can hear it in Tom’s (Brady) voice. They want to rip your heart out every possible way they can jump on it, squeeze it, and everything else. And that’s where Patrick was at that time, but I just wanted to make sure that son of a gun wasn’t broken because it was kind of an ugly, ugly look right there. But once he got it checked out, he was good to go. And he’s doing well now. So he’s, he’s in a good place.”

Asked about how he’ll protect Mahomes leading up to and during the game, Andy Reid challenged the offensive line to better protect the franchise quarterback.

“I’m going to let his offensive line take care of that,” said Reid. “They need to feel that and up their game a little bit here.”

The offensive line will need to be prepared for a potent Bengals pass rush that has given them trouble in the past.

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Story originally appeared on Chiefs Wire