The Chiefs faced their darkest fear.

KC Chiefs Injury Update: Four players are out before the team plays the Bills in Week 14
When playing the Bills this weekend, Kansas City anticipates being without four players, two on each side of the ball.
The Kansas City Chiefs are banged up entering their Week 14 game against the Buffalo Bills, and there hasn’t been a ton of good news on the injury front throughout the week. To cap off practice on Friday, the team dropped a list of players that won’t play on Sunday.

According to head coach Andy Reid, those who will be out this weekend are running back Isiah Pacheco (shoulder), offensive tackle Donovan Smith (neck), linebacker Drue Tranquill (concussion) and safety Bryan Cook (ankle). This is the same group of Chiefs that missed practice during the week.

At this point, none of these developments should come as much of a surprise. Cook suffered a scary ankle injury last Sunday against the Green Bay Packers and while Reid described it as a sprain earlier this week, he said on Friday that the ailment is still being evaluated. The same is true for Pacheco, who came in Wednesday with a shoulder contusion that’s held him out of practice. It’s the same shoulder that he had surgery on following the conclusion of last season. Reid was noncommittal about an injured reserve stint for either Cook or Pacheco.

With Pacheco now being out and Jerick McKinnon having his workload monitored due to a nagging groin injury, it’s expected that Clyde Edwards-Helaire could be the featured running back on Sunday. Reid praised him when asked about that possibility and on Thursday, offensive coordinator Matt Nagy had this to say about how the fourth-year halfback looks this year:

 

Elsewhere, rookie offensive tackle Wanya Morris is poised to get the start this week with Smith still battling that stinger. On the defensive side of the ball, Tranquill hasn’t cleared the league’s concussion protocol but the glimmer of hope for the Chiefs is that Nick Bolton is tracking to come off IR and return to the lineup this week. It would be his first in-game action since Week 7. Unfortunately for Kansas City, however, they’re still facing a 6-6 Bills team that’s in desperate need of a win coming out of their bye week.