Injury-Riddled Wide Receiver Room Derails Chiefs' Plans – Does KC Need to Make a Move?

The Kansas City Chiefs' wide receiver room has been decimated by injuries, leaving a recently revamped group short-handed. Does KC need to make a move?

Sep 29, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice (4) is assisted by medical staff after an injury in the first half against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The Kansas City Chiefs began training camp with a vision for their wide receiver room that would star Rashee Rice and Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in a retooled group destined to wash away bad memories of 2023's struggling crew of wideouts. Now, heading into the bye, rookie Xavier Worthy and recent New England Patriots castoff JuJu Smith-Schuster are leading the way for KC's wide receivers.

How did the Chiefs get here, where are they now, and what should they do before the trade deadline? Jordan Foote of Kansas City Chiefs On SI and I continue to assess the state of the 2024 Chiefs during the team's bye week.

Joshua Brisco: Learning a lesson from 2023's struggles, the Chiefs revamped their wide receiver room ahead of their pending three-peat campaign. Rashee Rice was primed to take another step in his second season. Marquise "Hollywood" Brown was signed to provide a versatile, proven, high-level pairing with Rice. Xavier Worthy was drafted in the first round as a dangerous speedster who could develop at his own pace as he worked to become a consistent threat in the offense.

Sure, another year of Skyy Moore and Mecole Hardman wasn't thrilling, and Justin Watson's ceiling isn't getting any higher, but behind a high-octane top-three, part-time players were in part-time roles. Then, injuries struck. With the now-vital addition of JuJu Smith-Schuster, the group survived as Brown and Rice fell, but it's hard to be excited about where the group stands now, considering how the roster projected before training camp.

Jordan Foote: To general manager Brett Veach’s credit, he couldn’t have predicted that Brown would suffer a setback with his injury or that Patrick Mahomes would accidentally end his star wideout’s sophomore season just a handful of weeks into the year. A group of Worthy, Smith-Schuster, Watson and company can temporarily withstand those injuries, as evidenced by Week 5’s huge performance against the New Orleans Saints.

The issue becomes long-term sustainability, as this receiver group gives shades of last season’s Chiefs offense. Kansas City should know how improbable its January turnaround was, so riding things out with this arsenal of weapons seems like a bad idea to me. If the Chiefs really want that championship three-peat, adding a high-level pass catcher needs to be a priority ahead of the trade deadline. Amari Cooper is the popular pick — does anyone else stand out to you?

Brisco: I agree with your view there — Smith-Schuster and Worthy can tread water and may even be able to trade off game-leading performances (with obvious help from Travis Kelce), but I don't think that can be Plan A for a team attempting to make history. Cooper still makes the most sense to me, despite the fact that he hasn't been in Andy Reid's offense before. The salary and draft capital price for roughly 10 games of Cooper's services would be within KC's budget.

The other name that feels plausible is Carolina Panthers wide receiver Diontae Johnson. You wrote about him in March, when it was reported that the Pittsburgh Steelers didn't want to send Johnson to KC. Assuming the Chiefs' interest in Johnson was legitimate at the time, he makes almost as much sense now as he did in the spring. The Chiefs could also, in a high-risk, high-reward gamble, extend the 28-year-old Johnson before he hits free agency after this season. If the team would be willing to trust their past evaluation of Johnson, he could suddenly become part of a trio with Rice and Worthy for the 2025 and '26 seasons, with Rice and Worthy on team-friendly rookie contracts.

Foote: Johnson definitely makes the most sense beyond Cooper and way above someone like Darius Slayton. Not only can he beat man coverage and help the offense now, but he’s still young enough to fit the team’s timeline if extended and I’m not sure he’d truly break the bank in that scenario. Heck, there’s even a world where Brown comes back due to a deflated market and Kansas City has a real arsenal of weapons on its hands for the first time since… August when all of this started going downhill!

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