<\/p>\n
During his decorated 15-year NFL career, quarterback Matt Ryan was at his best when facing the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
In five games against the Chiefs, Ryan had a 113.1 quarterback rating, the highest against any opponent he ever faced. That included two games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, a place where he\u2019ll return on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Ryan, who was the 2016 NFL MVP, is now an analyst with CBS Sports\u2019 \u201cThe NFL Today.\u201d The studio crew will be outside Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday doing the pregame show from 11 a.m. to noon near Founders Plaza.<\/p>\n
Being at Arrowhead Stadium will afford Ryan an opportunity he didn\u2019t have when he was playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an energy when you\u2019re there live on site, and I think Arrowhead in particular, coming in there as a player you\u2019re on your bus, and you see these tailgates, and you see kind of the great fanfare and kind of the energy, but you don\u2019t really get to experience it,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cYou\u2019re kind of off that bus and into the stadium as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think one of the cool things of going to the sites, like we were in Green Bay Week 1, in Buffalo last year, in Kansas City at the end of the year (at the AFC Championship Game), you really do start to get a feel for the fan bases and their level of passion.\u201d<\/p>\n
One passion Chiefs fans share while tailgating is the food. Ryan never got to sample the barbecue when he was a player.<\/p>\n
He hopes to change that Sunday.<\/p>\n
Ryan will not only be part of \u201cThe NFL Today\u201d show with James Brown, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher, but Ryan is part of the online \u201cNFL Today+\u201d show that will be at Arrowhead from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always smells good there, you know, the barbecue and those things,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cSo I\u2019m hoping to be able to sneak out and find a little barbecue, and maybe drop in on a tailgate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan, who had 62,792 passing yards with 381 touchdown throws in his career, knew some good and bad times. And that gives him insight into the Chiefs woes this season.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs\u2019 offense has struggled at times to find its footing without suspended wide receiver Rashee Rice and injured wideout Xavier Worthy. Ryan noted a similar situation once happened with his Falcons, but it\u2019s been more difficult for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.<\/p>\n
However, Ryan believes the Chiefs, who are 21st in scoring, are close to turning a corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always tough, right?\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIn 2016, the year we made it to the Super Bowl, we had a four-game stretch in November and December where Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu were out. I feel like it\u2019s different when it\u2019s late in the year, where you\u2019ve gotten more reps with these guys in practice, and there\u2019s a little bit better familiarity. I think it\u2019s difficult when it happens as early as it did for the Chiefs, right?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think other receivers were thrust into it faster, and so I think it\u2019s more difficult early in the year as a quarterback to make those adjustments, because there\u2019s just not as much time on task. But I think you\u2019re starting to see it come, right? I think you\u2019re starting to see a little bit better rhythm and timing from those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his decorated 15-year NFL career, quarterback Matt Ryan was at his best when facing the Chiefs. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[69096,787,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,4247,9666,6,27300],"class_list":{"0":"post-398768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-nfl-today-show-is-coming-to-kc-and-one-analyst-wants-a-taste-of-chiefs-tailgate","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kansas-city","13":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","14":"tag-kansascity","15":"tag-kansascitychiefs","16":"tag-local-news","17":"tag-newsbreak","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-the-kansas-city-star"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115271443724982892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}