I read it all. But it started with some shit that I'm stupid for implying that the first round bye is not serious. It's flipping huge.
Is it as important as having Mahomes alive? No. But here is how important it is. In the last 3 years, 10 out of 12 teams that made the conference championship game had a first round bye. Now one might say they made the conference championship because they were better teams and that's also why they had the bye in the first place. And that is partly true. But it's also true that the teams that did not have a first round bye and had to play round 1 lost to the lower seed over half the time over the same period. Not since the 2012 Ravens has a team went to the Super Bowl without a first round bye.
And by winning the next couple of games, you have the option of seeing how the Steelers finish and possibly sitting starters for the Chargers game and then having a bye after that, giving you basically 2 weeks to get healthy.