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The Kansas City Chiefs suffered a fast blow on the broad receiver place of their preseason opener, with new starter Marquise Brown briefly hospitalized on account of a shoulder damage suffered on his first catch. The veteran speedster will not require surgical procedure, head coach Andy Reid introduced Monday, however might nonetheless be sidelined into the beginning of the 2024 NFL season.
Which begs the query: Are the Chiefs approaching a disaster out broad? Brown’s damage might linger nicely into the season, and he additionally missed a mixed eight video games on account of separate illnesses whereas enjoying for the Arizona Cardinals from 2022-2023. After which there’s Rashee Rice, final yr’s rookie standout, who faces a possible multi-game suspension for his position in a high-speed automobile crash this spring.
If neither Brown nor Rice is accessible to open the yr, the Chiefs could be down each of their presumptive prime two receivers, vaulting first-round rookie Xavier Worthy into a probable No. 1 position. It is definitely not a super scenario, contemplating Worthy’s elite pace did not warrant him a single goal in his preseason debut, nor does the Texas product have any expertise testing his smaller body (5-foot-11, 165 kilos) towards actual NFL defenses.
Even then, it is exhausting to get in a tizzy about Kansas Metropolis’s offensive prospects.
Begin with the depth out broad. Even when Brown signed in free company and Worthy arrived within the draft, neither was anticipated to command a lion’s share of targets with Rice additionally onboard alongside reserves like Justin Watson, Skyy Moore, Kadarius Toney and Mecole Hardman. There are various opinions in regards to the reliability and/or upside of the latter choices, however all 4 have performed significant snaps for Kansas Metropolis up to now, with Watson quietly logging profession highs in catches (27), yards (460) and touchdowns (3) in 2023. In different phrases, this receiver room was all the time going to be a weekly seize bag.
It isn’t dissimilar to the teams that actually helped the Chiefs win back-to-back Tremendous Bowls the final two seasons. Totally different names have “starred” throughout completely different stretches — JuJu Smith-Schuster right here, Marquez Valdes-Scantling there — whereas the unit as a complete has remained largely interchangeable. It is an method not many groups can afford, however when your quarterback is Patrick Mahomes, your head coach is Andy Reid, your secondary weapons are the perpetually bodily Isiah Pacheco and Travis Kelce and your protection is ruthless below Steve Spagnuolo’s watch, nicely, even normal competence at this one place tends to maintain the boat afloat. It is a staff sport, children. And the Chiefs nonetheless have the most effective.
That is to not say there’s nothing to have a look at right here. Mahomes and Reid is likely to be the primary to inform you they’d favor to not win a title like they did in 2023, leaning extra on crunch-time conversions and suffocating protection greater than, say, the high-octane explosions of the 2018-2019 trophy bids. Even spoiled Chiefs followers can nonetheless really feel the scars of premature drops and alignment miscues that dotted final yr’s run.
And but, even when we assume Brown and Rice can be inactive for the primary handful of contests, there’s sufficient of an current mashup of confirmed manufacturing (i.e. Kelce, Pacheco) and recent legs (i.e. Worthy, Moore, even backup tight ends Noah Gray and Jared Wiley) to steadiness out Reid’s assault. Guys like Hardman and Toney cannot essentially be counted on as regular gadget weapons, however they’ve proven sufficient juice to be doable bonuses. And all of that is discounting the opportunity of somebody like Smith-Schuster additionally returning as insurance coverage.
The best influence of the Chiefs’ present broad receiver hurdles, actually, might be stylistic; Brown was put in with the thought of reinstituting deep-ball success, which hasn’t actually been seen with regularity in Kansas Metropolis since Tyreek Hill’s blockbuster departure. If he is the largest absentee aside from Rice, and if Worthy is not able to excel downfield on the professional degree, Mahomes and Co. will not essentially be prohibited from passing the ball. They might nicely simply take a web page out of latest seasons’ handbooks and search to maximise their short-area prospects, prioritizing Pacheco and Kelce as chain-moving bludgeons.
Excellent? No. The Chiefs’ broad receiver scenario is definitely not that. However since when have issues wanted to be excellent for the Ok.C. dynasty to press on?
