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The Kansas City Chiefs spent much of the offseason working on bolstering their playmaker corps, as they brought in Marquise Brown through free agency, and used their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft on speedster Xavier Worthy. That left some of the holdovers, such as Kadarius Toney, in a precarious spot with rosters being trimmed to 53 players.
Toney's time with the Chiefs has been rocky, but there's no doubt that when he's engaged, he has the potential to be one of the game's most explosive playmakers. Unfortunately, he won't be making plays for the Chiefs anymore, as the team shockingly opted to release him as part of their roster cuts.
Via Ian Rapoport:
“Source: The Chiefs are waiving Kadarius Toney, but he’ll have a market elsewhere. The talented playmaker's story isn’t done yet.”
Chiefs ran out of time with Kadarius Toney
Toney showed flashes of his talent during his time with the Chiefs, such as in Super Bowl 57, when he had a huge 65-yard punt return, and one of Kansas City's five touchdowns in the game. However, he was a healthy scratch for the Chiefs all throughout the postseason last year, and he spent time during training camp this year playing at running back in an effort to help him find a way onto the team's roster.
The Chiefs just didn't end up having room to keep everyone around. Brown, Worthy, and Rashee Rice project to be the team's top three wideouts, with Mecole Hardman serving in a gadget type role, and JuJu Smith-Schuster reuniting with the team in free agency on Monday. With all those guys in place, Toney ended up being the odd man out.
Of course, Toney wasn't the only guy in the wide receiver to find himself headed for the exit door. Another tough release the Chiefs had to make involved releasing Justyn Ross, who cracked the team in 2023 as an undrafted free agent. Ross could stick around on the team's practice squad, but it seems like there's a decent shot Toney could find his way onto another team's 53-man roster.
Sources: The #Chiefs are releasing former Clemson star WR Justyn Ross.
KC has a crowded receiver room, making it tough to keep everyone. pic.twitter.com/w8Bv97U0Pt
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) August 27, 2024
These are the sorts of tough decisions that teams all across the league have to make as the 53-man roster deadline creeps up, but it was still pretty surprising to see Toney get cut. What ends up happening next for him and Ross remains to be seen, but it will be worth keeping an eye on them, as it seems likely that they won't be free agents for very long.
