As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for Sunday afternoon’s Week 15 matchup with the Los Angeles Chargers, their playoff hopes hang by a thread — and JuJu Smith-Schuster is embracing his role as the wide receiver room’s steady, experienced voice under head coach Andy Reid.
“I’ve been in worse situations,” the ninth-year veteran explained to reporters after Friday’s practice. “And I feel like being here and being around this organization, [I’ve] felt a lot of positive in the past year. For me, it’s about
keeping the energy up and not losing our personality.
“That’s one thing Coach Reid talks about: ‘Don’t lose yourself in times like this.’
“Teams tend to go all over the place, but we’re staying here, staying close together — and moments like this are when you really get to know one another.”
Smith-Schuster believes that this is when veteran leadership matters most.
“The vets already know how it is,” he said. “For me, being a positive guy in the room is about keeping that energy up.”
Smith-Schuster pushed back on a suggestion that it’s difficult to keep young players mentally focused in an organization where winning has long been the standard.
“It’s not tough,” he insisted. “I think that when you come to an organization like this — where they’ve experienced win after win after win — the expectation is so high [that] everyone is much harder on themselves to just [match] that standard.
“You see guys coming to work every single day, putting in the work. The young guys? They see that — and they want to be a part of that. And I think for them, it’s more [about] their growing and learning. Everyone just wants to be better.”
While Smith-Schuster acknowledges that the Chiefs often face their opponents’ best efforts, he downplays the idea that this creates extra pressure on them.
“I mean, dude, look at our team,” he observed. “We’ve been to the Super Bowl multiple times. Everyone’s going to give their best against us. So it’s [on us] to feel like they’re going to give their best — [so] we’re going to play our best. Not every game is going to be one where the offense has 500 yards or the defense has four turnovers. It’s not always going to be pretty.”
For a team built on sustained success, Smith-Schuster believes these moments are part of the process.
“In these situations [and] in these times,” he said, “you grow in those aspects.”
As the Chiefs try to keep their postseason hopes alive over this four-game stretch, Smith-Schuster’s message remains consistent: stay connected and stay positive. And most of all, don’t lose what defines the team — even when the results don’t come easily.
