When the Kansas City Chiefs come off of their bye week to host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, their receiving corps will look different than in previous weeks.
Speedster Tyquan Thornton was lost for the foreseeable future when he dislocated his ankle making a spectacular play in Week 4’s victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. In addition, top wideout Rashee Rice left the game early with a hamstring injury. Rice was held out of practice on Wednesday.
Rice and Thornton combined for 409 of the Chiefs’
1037 receiving yards through the first four games of the season. Before Wednesday’s practice, head coach Andy Reid lamented Thornton’s injury but expected the team’s depth receivers to step up. Third-year pro Xavier Worthy also showed life in Week 4 by catching 4 passes for 70 yards after a very slow start to the year.
“[Thornton] was having a very good year, and I’m sad to see what happened to him because of that,” Reid remarked. “He’s a great kid on top of all that. But one man’s loss is another man’s opportunity to jump in and do that. So, whoever that might be that’s got the call to make the play, that’s a positive. I’ve trusted all the guys, and Xavier’s still in there, too, going and he’s coming off a couple good catches in our last couple games.”
Following Reid at the podium, quarterback Patrick Mahomes expressed confidence that young receivers Jalen Royals and Cyrus Allen can rise to the opportunity now in front of them.
“They’ve put in the work,” Mahomes explained. “Obviously, we’ve had the guys in front of them with Tyquan going out there and playing great football, and so they’ve had to put in the work at practice, and they’ve been doing that. So now their number gets called, and they’re going to step into the role and do their job. I’m excited for them. We’ll put them in position to succeed. I have a lot of trust in those guys, a lot of confidence in them, and so we’ll continue to push it forward.”
Royals only has three catches for 17 yards on the year, and Allen has yet to make his first NFL catch. Mahomes believes that practicing as a bigger part of the game plan will allow for a stronger showing than what fans saw in limited Week 4 action after Rice’s injury.
“It’s going to make it easier for them,” Mahomes predicted. “When you get thrown in, and you never know which position you’re going to be at and what route you’re going to run, it’s hard. That’s part of playing in the NFL is you don’t get those reps that you necessarily would have had in college and high school and stuff like that. So, I thought they did a great job of stepping in whenever their number’s been called.
“But now they’ll have a full week of kind of getting those reps in, and we’ll put them in position to succeed where they can do their best things. And so, like I said, I have a lot of confidence in those guys. They did a great job at training camp, and when their number’s been called in the season, they’ve done a great job as well.”
Mahomes has a good gauge on where the young receivers stand with Reid’s playbook because he has been testing them constantly since training camp.
“I wouldn’t describe it as pop quizzes,” Mahomes revealed, “but you test guys, and you talk to guys throughout routes. So, in training camp and in early parts of the season and maybe in practice, when something happens, I go up to them and talk to what they’re thinking and kind of how I’m thinking. You hope what sticks with them is that they have these one-on-one conversations, either on the sideline or on the field, and so that when it happens in the game, they’re ready for it. That’s all you can do. You can’t prepare for everything, but at the same time, you can prepare for the reps that you do have. I thought we’ve done a great job of that, and we’ll do that this week as well.”
Mahomes learned the technique he uses from one of the best: tight end Travis Kelce.
“I think it started with Trav,” he recalled. “I think that was kind of the biggest thing when I first got into the league. He always would just talk to me after every play. So then, when we got to games, I would know what he was thinking, and obviously that’s kind of blossomed to what it’s blossomed to. So, I try to keep that going. I’ve done it with Rashee now. I’ve done it with a lot of these guys that we’ve kind of been through here, is that we have these conversations so that when we get in the game, we’re on the same page thinking. If we’re not, we talk about it on the sideline right after and try to be on the same page the next rep.”
