Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney has been under fire since his costly offsides penalty during Kansas City’s 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 14.

To help Toney move past the incident, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes offered some advice to the young receiver during his press conference on December 13.

“Just be you. That’s all you can do in life or in this league,” Mahomes said of his message to Toney. “You’re going to make mistakes; stuff is going to happen in your life. How do you accept that adversity and get past it and do it the right way? (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid preaches that and that’s how I roll. If you make one mistake, that’s not going to define you, it’s going to be how you respond to the mistake.”

Mahomes also had a message for the entire receiver room.

“All the receivers know I believe in them. That’s how I roll, if you’re in this locker room and I see how hard you work, I’m going to trust in you in big moments and I’m going to give you chances to go out there and make plays,” Mahomes said. “From everything I know, their mindset seems like it’s in a good spot and they want to go out there and continue to get better and better. I can see how hard they are working out here, and I feel like if we can continue to push through and grind that we’ll end up on the other side of it as the season goes on.”

Patrick Mahomes Talks Patriots Matchup

The Chiefs’ (8-5) Week 15 matchup will be an away game against the 3-10 New England Patriots. During the same press conference, Mahomes was asked about the challenges involved in playing a Bill Belichick-led defense, which ranks 10th in the NFL in DVOA this season, per FTN.

“I think they do a great job of making everything look very similar but doing little things here and there to change it up. That’s where they get you in trouble at the quarterback position. He (Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick) knows tendencies. He’s going to really break it down, what you do well and try to take that away. Even if they play a coverage and the rules say you might need to play it this way, he’s going to adjust it just enough to affect where you want to go as a quarterback.

“It’s a great challenge for you, I think that’s why you see the young quarterbacks especially like I was early in my career you have trouble – even veteran quarterbacks,” Mahomes continued. “You think you know where to go with the ball before the snap, but he makes those adjustments week in and week out to take those away and make you get through your progressions and be perfect every play. It will be a great challenge obviously for the offense but for me especially.”

The Chiefs-Patriots game will take place on Sunday, December 17 at noon Central time.

AFC Playoff Picture in Week 15

Here’s the current look at which teams would make the playoffs in the AFC if the regular season ended today, and their current seedings:

    Baltimore Ravens (10-3)
    Miami Dolphins (9-4)
    Kansas City Chiefs (8-5)
    Jacksonville Jaguars (8-5)
    Cleveland Browns (8-5)
    Pittsburgh Steelers (7-6)
    Indianapolis Colts (7-6)

Four other AFC teams are sporting a 7-6 record and are currently in the hunt for a playoff spot (Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Houston Texans), which means the AFC playoff picture could look very different as soon as Week 15 concludes.

For the Chiefs, they must win out the regular season if they want to maintain full control of their path into the playoffs. One more loss could potentially have them slipping down the seedings, but two more losses could cause the division-rival Broncos — if Denver wins their next two games — to leapfrog the Chiefs in the division standings, which would then put Kansas City’s playoff hopes in jeopardy.

The Chiefs’ final four games of the regular season are: at Patriots, home vs. Raiders, home vs. Bengals, at Chargers.