The Kansas City Chiefs finished training camp at Missouri Western State at St. Joe on Thursday morning with a light practice ahead of preseason Week 2. Head coach Andy Reid met with local media after practice, providing a status update ahead of the road exhibition against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday evening.
Chiefs Kingdom will have to wait at least another week to see star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Reid revealed that Justin Fields would start again on Saturday,
then shared the schedule for backup quarterbacks Garrett Nussmeier and Chris Oladokun.
“The way the quarterbacks will play this week,” Reid began. “We’ll go a quarter and a half with Justin, a quarter and a half with Garrett and Chris will take the fourth quarter. It will be somewhere in that area, don’t hold me to the play on that. That’s a rough itinerary, and the rest of the guys will follow that schedule.”
When asked if there was a possibility of Mahomes playing in the preseason Week 3 game against the Seattle Seahawks, Reid jabbed ESPN’s Nate Taylor with a joke before kicking that can down the road.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Reid said. “We’ll see.”
Injury update
Reid shared the status of a handful of Chiefs injuries during his press conference, with one note about defensive end Ashton Gillotte standing out above all.
“Gillotte has a plantar fascia that ruptured,” Reid said nonchalantly. “He won’t play.”
During the 2015 NFL season, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning partially tore plantar fascia in his left foot. That was revealed after an all-time bad performance from the Hall of Fame quarterback against the Chiefs: Kansas City nabbed four interceptions in a 29-13 win.
Manning had battled a plantar fasciitis injury for weeks, but aggravated it before the matchup with Kansas City. Reportedly, he had difficulty walking, although ESPN’s report from that situation says a partial tear is more painful to play with than a complete tear.
That sounds like a severe injury for a defensive lineman, although there are still over three weeks until the Week 1 game. Reid has not made any injury — including starting right guard Trey Smith’s hip issue — out to be a serious problem.
“These aren’t extended injuries; they’ll be back,” Reid said later in his press conference. “Just nicks-and-bruises type things. They’re working through them and back going.”
Other injury notes
Reid said that veteran linebacker Jack Cochrane and safety Chamarri Conner tried to practice on Thursday, but the team backed off; neither will be available for Saturday’s preseason game.
The head coach also revealed that starting left tackle Josh Simmons (Back) and Trey Smith (Hip) will not suit up for Saturday’s game. Reid again said Smith has been “making progress.”
Rookie, undrafted wide receiver Jeff Caldwell hyperextended his knee in practice this week and will not play on Saturday. Wide receiver Jimmy Holiday will not play either; he has not practiced in over a week.
