The Kansas City Chiefs playing their final preseason game on Thursday night has its benefits and its detriments.

On one hand, the Chiefs have an extended period to get players healthy and ready for the regular season. They can turn their attention to evaluating their roster, making cuts and continuing their preparations for Week 1 early. On the other hand, there are 17 days before the team will get their next live football action. That’s quite a bit of time without a game and players will have to stay disciplined and focused during that time.

How exactly does Andy Reid plan to keep guys from getting complacent during that break from the action? Well, he’s going to put them through what would be considered a normal practice week for starters.

“Yeah so, next week it’ll be an opportunity for us to go through a normal week’s practice back at the facility,” Reid told reporters following the game. “We’ll keep the times kind of the same. We’ll change some things up practice-wise, but just so the guys have a chance to go through a normal game week. This was more like a Thursday game – an in-season Thursday game – and we’ll try to give them the whole picture with that and set it up that way. So, we’ll work this week and then they’ll get a few days off and then we’ll start back up for Arizona.”

Reid is a creature of habit. Naturally, his team follows suit. Getting the players into the habit of a proper game week in terms of practice, meetings and preparation should help keep everyone focused on the task at hand. That, of course, is opening Week 1 with a win over the Arizona Cardinals on the road.