Three takeaways from Chiefs 53-man roster: A Kadarius Toney lesson & why JuJu is back

The longest punt return in Super Bowl history will live on for a while — particularly as time fattens its importance in Kansas City.

But the player who provided it is gone.

Kadarius Toney, an enticing talent too often offset, if not overshadowed, by the enigmatic personality, was released by the Chiefs on Tuesday, failing to make the team out of training camp.

Kansas City foreshadowed the move over the back half of camp this month — with head coach Andy Reid even showing some frustration with Toney sitting out multiple days of practice — but the infatuation with that first-round skill-set kept the relationship alive once before.

They traded two draft picks — Nos. 100 and 209 in the 2023 NFL Draft, as it would turn out — to acquire Toney from the Giants, disregarding how eager his previous team was to move on. That should have been a warning sign, but the Chiefs breezed right past it. Why would a team, even one that had turned over its head coach and front office leadership, be willing to part with a first-round pick with more than two years of control remaining? Shouldn’t that be a piece to build around?

The decision the Chiefs made Tuesday was an easy one for those paying attention to preseason football. Toney had a remarkably uneven camp, an unofficial leader in dropped passes in practice. He missed days. He rarely took many reps with Patrick Mahomes and the first team.

The decision the Chiefs ought to revisit — for future considerations — was the one that came nearly two years ago.

The trade.

Toney wasn’t a free flier. The Chiefs took a real risk when they acquired him — an even greater risk when you consider how they’ve plucked talent from the middle rounds of the draft.

If you want to argue the Chiefs still got their value from the trade because of that punt return — which set up a fourth quarter touchdown in Super Bowl LVII against the Eagles — I’ll listen to it. After all, that play increased the Chiefs’ win probability by 13.1% per Next Gen Stats. The Chiefs, though, were already holding a lead and already employing a red-hot quarterback who appreciated the short field but probably didn’t need it.

But in the pros-cons list, that exhausts the former.

A circus filled the latter.

Toney too frequently glossed over the fine-print details vital to an Andy Reid offense, and he seemed more at ease putting energy into off-field distractions than anything on a football field.

The Chiefs, at multiple junctures, told themselves they needed Toney. They needed to trade for him. They needed him on opening night a year ago, when his drops became a national storyline. Foreseeable, really. He never did recover from that night, contributing these headlines during the season:

• His offside penalty against Buffalo negated a potential game-winning touchdown on one of the objectively coolest plays we’ve seen at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

• Days before the Chiefs departed for a Super Bowl in Las Vegas, we were asking Reid questions instead about Toney’s accusation that the Chiefs had lied about his injury. The fact the Chiefs reserved a seat for Toney on the plane was baffling.

The whole thing has been that.

Baffling.

At every turn, the Chiefs convinced themselves Toney was an answer, and I’m still not even sure what question they were asking. A team with Patrick Mahomes ought to bend over backward for no one else.

They were Super Bowl champions a year ago in spite of him, not because of him.

The Chiefs should learn from it. They don’t need any supporting player so badly — at least not one whose price is that expensive — that they should ignore the red flags over and over again.

Now, a couple of other things we can learn from the cuts:

What to make of the JuJu Smith-Schuster signing

Two years ago, a Super Bowl season, JuJu Smith-Schuster led all Chiefs wide receivers in catches (78) and yards (933).

He’s back.

But what version of him?

It’s certainly a little jarring that Smith-Schuster was cut by New England, the literal betting favorite for the No. 1 overall pick next season, yet he can quickly latch on in Kansas City, the literal betting favorite for the Super Bowl who is keeping seven wide receivers. (I don’t have the energy to get into that again yet.)

How do you square that?

Well, the best version of Smith-Schuster fits a specific need in KC: short and sweet.

The Chiefs devoted their offseason to revamping the deep passing game, signing Marquise “Hollywood” Brown to a one-year contract and spending their first-round pick on Xavier Worthy two months after he broke the NFL Scouting Combine record in the 40-yard dash.

But it’s not as though they’re content to overlook the short part of the field.

In his only season with the Chiefs, Smith-Schuster was targeted 60 times on passes thrown between 0-9 yards downfield, per PFF. Nearly 62% of his targets came in that area. Both statistics far outpaced the rest of the team’s wide receivers.

That is what the Chiefs were seeking with Smith-Schuster, and it doesn’t hurt to add insurance with the uncertainty around Rashee Rice’s situation. Rice occupied that underneath role a year ago.

The depth

The winless preseason record doesn’t mean much.

The reasons behind it mean a little.

Their reserves were clobbered in the three games, particularly in the trenches. It’s quite simple: The Chiefs do not have the depth they did a year ago.

On Tuesday, they offered a signal they agree.

They trimmed their roster to 51, not 53, saving the final two spots to acquire players that other teams appeared prepared to cut.

The Chiefs traded a conditional late-round pick to Dallas for tight end Peyton Hendershot, and they sent a seventh-rounder to Arizona for edge rusher Cameron Thomas.

It’s not a lock the Chiefs are done, either, with an opportunity to access what 31 other teams waived or released Tuesday. They are noticeably thinner along the defensive line, at cornerback and running back — the price of success.

For a team that wants more of it.