The Kansas City Chiefs are aiming for a three-peat, the first in NFL history, but Kadarius Toney, one of the team's most polarizing players may become the talk of training camp if things hold up.
Toney, who did not play in the Super Bowl after a disastrous 2023 season, is apparently getting reps with the Chiefs' starters as training camp gets underway for the two-time defending champions.
“Something noteworthy: Kadarius Toney is getting plenty of repetitions with the projected starters,” The Athletic Chiefs reporter Nate Taylor wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Kadarius Toney's odd 2023 season with Chiefs
A first-round draft pick by the New York Giants in 2021, Kadarius Toney has had an unusual NFL career. After showing promise as a rookie — he had 39 catches for 420 receiving yards — Toney missed some games with a hamstring injury and recorded just two catches in the two games he played with the Giants in 2022. He was traded by New York to the Kansas City Chiefs ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline, and he immediately became an impact player for the Chiefs.
In addition to more than 200 yards and 3 touchdowns on offense during the regular season, Toney proved his value in Super Bowl LVII, when he he returned a punt for 65 yards (a Super Bowl record) and caught a go-ahead touchdown pass in the fourth quarter as the Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles.
Things didn't go nearly as well the following season for Toney, however. After offseason knee surgery, Toney struggled throughout the year with drops and an infamous offensive offside penalty in Week 14 against the Buffalo Bills that negated a would-be late touchdown. He ultimately did not play at all during the playoffs, including Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers, and once claimed on an Instagram Live during the postseason that he was not injured.
Unsurprisingly, the Chiefs declined Toney's fifth-year option, meaning Toney is set to be a free agent next offseason — he will earn $2.5 million this year and would have made $14.4 million next year if the Chiefs had exercised the option.
At such a low cap hit, and with the Chiefs already having targets for Patrick Mahomes such as Rashee Rice, Marquise Brown, Travis Kelce, and Xavier Worthy, Toney will probably get one last chance to prove his worth to Kansas City this season. But Chiefs head coach Andy Reid appears to be trying to use Toney's speed and athleticism as a receiver-back hybrid instead of solely at wideout.
“Yeah, I think that’s one of his strengths, is to be able to move him around,” Reid said during training camp. “He had some positive snaps for us at running back last year, and so he enjoys doing that, pretty multifaceted there with what he can do, and we’re gonna try to utilize it to the best of his abilities there.”
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