KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith is expected to miss about six weeks after the team discovered he has a lacerated spleen. That leaves the offense in the hands of career backup Chase Daniel for Sunday’s important game against San Diego. The Chiefs need to beat the Chargers and hope that Baltimore loses to Cleveland and Houston falls to Jacksonville to reach the postseason for the second straight year.
More from the Chiefs on Daniels running the offense Sunday.
Andy Reid
“[Alex and Chase] have a great relationship. They’re always challenging each other in a positive way. They have a lot of trust in each other, so they talk continuously throughout games and meetings and practice. They always check their ego and they feed off of each other which is a very positive thing in their relationship and in that room.”
Alex Smith
“I talked to Chase (Daniel) last night. I really felt like I ate up two practice days of his. They would have been important had we known this earlier but tough. Really kind of on me I feel like but, any way I can help us now. Whatever it is. Helping him prepare, passing on anything that I had been thinking this whole week and getting ready for. Doing anything I can to help us get ready to go win a game.”
Jason Avant
“You take reps with everybody in practice, and that’s what you practice everything for because you never know throughout a season what may happen. It’s definitely an unfortunate situation for Alex, but as far as the whole team’s perspective, I know Alex is wishing Chase well and lets him hear about all the looks that he’s seen so far. Everybody is working as hard as they can to get him ready for game time. We know that he’ll be ready and we just expect him to go out and execute his assignments at quarterback. He doesn’t have to be Alex, he doesn’t have to be anybody else, he just has to be an efficient player on Sunday and he’ll do that.”
Rodney Hudson
“Chase is going to step in, we’re confident that he’ll do a good job. Everybody just has to work together, work as an offense and offensive line. Just work together and we’ll be fine.”
Travis Kelce
“You have to do what you have to do. You can’t harp or mope around saying ‘Aw, man, we lost one of our leaders’ or something like that. Obviously we wish we had him out there, but at the same time, we have to roll with who we have and everyone’s confident that Chase is going to do what he has to do and we’re going to go ahead and rally around him.”
Aaron Murray
“Obviously I’m hoping Chase does his things, goes out there and balls out and we win and those other teams lose and we’re in the playoffs. So that’s our goal this week and we’ve been working hard. Chase has been working hard. He is one of the hardest working guys on the team, one of those guys that is first in, first out. So I know he is excited to go out there and ball out and lead this team to victory.”