Andy Reid Shines Light on Problems and Plans for Kadarius Toney
It's no secret that Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney had a disastrous Week 1. In the league's season-opening game, Toney struggled to catch the football, including on a play that resulted in a Detroit Lions interception returned for a touchdown after a Patrick Mahomes pass bounced off his hands and into the grasp of Lions defensive back Brian Branch.
How did Toney's ugly first game spiral the way it did, and what's next for KC's explosive pass-catcher? Chiefs head coach Andy Reid discussed both of those topics at length in Monday's press conference.
When asked how he would explain Toney's struggles against the Lions, Reid started by admitting that the team may have been over-reliant on Toney, a player who never officially started practice at Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph, Mo.
“You know what I would probably take the blame on that – when I said that after the game, I meant that," Reid began. "Listen, he missed all of training camp from honestly the first punt return pre-practice on through, so he literally had no training camp until just the last few days when he got back here – and we measured that, we didn’t give him a lot. With that, I thought him getting in the game was important.
"To be fair, I’ve got to look in the mirror on that one. I probably didn’t put him in the best position there because he doesn’t drop the ball, that’s just not his deal. He’s a very secure catcher. I think that the only way we’re going to get him back is playing him. I think this week will be different than the last week. But I thought it was important that he got in the game, got caught up on the speed, but I probably put him in bad positions – primary position there especially later in the game – he’s still getting his legs back and all that."
After that answer, Reid was asked about the process of getting Toney back on track, and Reid reiterated that the plan for Toney is to keep putting the ball in his hands.
"He’s had some time here now to keep working, which I think will benefit him," Reid said. "Getting in that game I thought was an important thing – I mean that part was important, putting him in the positions I did, I probably shouldn’t have done that. I think you’ll see better as we go down the road here from him."
Reid continued with the same message when he was asked if he needed to take extra time with Toney to talk to him about how he's feeling and what went wrong on Thursday. Reid said, one more time, that what Toney really needs is to keep getting reps while getting back up to speed.
"Normally the player knows probably better than anybody," Reid said. "I have talked to him a couple different times; we just need to keep going through the process here. You’ve got to keep playing and the more he plays – that’s just not his thing. He’s not a guy that drops balls. He’s got great hands. We just have to keep working through it."
