Dave Toub said the Chiefs will use their front-line special teams players early Saturday against the Los Angeles Rams, then turn the rest of the preseason opener over to deeper reserves at Arrowhead Stadium. The plan gives Kansas City a first live look at how its blocking, tackling and return units hold up against another team.
Toub said he cannot wait to see it. For him, this is the first chance to judge whether a player can block or tackle on special teams with live tackling to the ground, after weeks of Kansas City players hitting each other in practice. The Chiefs will open the preseason against the Los Angeles Rams at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday, and it will be the first live action against another team this preseason.
The evaluation will be broad, but Nikko Remigio sits at the center of it. Toub said he wants to see more touchdowns from Remigio, who is entering his third year as the team's primary return man, and said his vision has improved in practice. He also said Remigio is catching the ball great. That matters because Toub said he does not need much from him to make a decision: one touch on punt return and one on kick return would be enough.
The same logic extends to the rest of the return group. Toub named Brashard Smith, Cyrus Allen and Jacob De Jesus as the other return men he wants to evaluate against the Rams, and said he wants to see the off returners blocking more than anything. He added that he would like to see Smith get one punt return, and said he still needs to talk to coach about whether Allen is up to speed with his leg and everything. For a staff trying to judge depth, those snaps may tell more than a full quarter ever could.
The setup is complicated by what happened at Wednesday's practice. Nick Bolton, Jared Wiley and Peter Woods left because of injury, Mansoor Delane wore a yellow non-contact jersey while increasing his participation, and Jimmy Holiday, Trey Smith, L’Jarius Sneed and Drue Tranquill did not appear on the field. That leaves the Chiefs trying to balance evaluation with caution, even as Toub said he expects to see his front-line guys early before moving to a lot of twos and threes in the third and fourth quarters.
That split is the point. Toub said he has four deep everywhere on kickoff and kickoff return, so the preseason opener should not be read as a full workload for the starters or a meaningless game for the rest. It is a test of who can block, who can tackle and who can turn a touch into something bigger, with Remigio still the one Toub most wants to see finish better. Saturday will show whether that plan holds under live fire.
