With roster cuts (mostly) in the rear view mirroe, the Kansas City Chiefs can now turn their attention to 2025’s season opener, when they will face the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday, September 5 in Saõ Paulo, Brazil.
“We’re just looking forward to Week 1 against the Chargers now,” tight end Noah Gray told reporters on Wednesday. “[We have] great guys all across the team and the coaching staff, and it’s going to be really exciting to just really attack practice. [We’re] really looking forward to a really great Chargers team that
we get to play down in Brazil.”
Those guys include what may be the fastest wide receiver corps Gray has lined up with since arriving in Kansas City during the 2021 NFL Draft. The fifth-year pro is excited to see the combined speed of wideouts Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown and Tyquan Thornton.
“You know those guys are fast,” said Gray. “They can run downfield and make big plays down the field, but they’re also great in the slot. You can move those guys around, so it’s just really cool to see guys like that — especially when we’ve got all of them on the field at one time to come together [and] to run certain concepts together.
“It’s a lot of fun; it’s been a lot of fun for me. It helps me get open when guys are flying around, taking the top off the defense and doing their jobs extremely well… We’re just really looking forward to building on that chemistry.”
But building that chemistry may have to wait a little while, because the Kansas City offense was dealt a blow on Wednesday. After a year and a half of speculation, the league’s discipline for wide receiver Rashee Rice finally came down. During the six games that Rice will miss, Gray is putting his trust in head coach Andy Reid and his staff.
“We’re just going to go out there,” the tight end declared, “[and] trust what the coaches put on our plates and whatever game plan that we have — regardless of who’s in there. I’m extremely confident in all of the guys, and it’s going to be fun.”
When Gray and his teammates take the field on foreign soil, the stakes will be higher than they were in the preseason slate Kansas City just finished. Gray knows the eyes of the football world will be on this showcase matchup — and believes the Chiefs have been preparing for this moment since getting their offseason program underway in April.
“The regular season is different,” he explained, “but I think we’re just going to try to build off of everything that we started back when we reported in the spring for OTAs — and just kind of keep building on that.”
That’s the whole point: to keep finding ways to be better.
“There’s always room for improvement out of practice,” continued Gray, “and every week is going to present a new challenge — especially in the regular season.”
Even if it’s all happening in an entirely new environment.
“I’ve never been to Brazil before,” admitted the tight end. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
