Here’s some unsolicited advice to the Chiefs as they get ready to descend upon Sin City for Super Bowl 2024: Leave your problems at home.
More fair warning to the Kansas City decisions-makers: When you have a good thing going, don’t play with fire or you might get burned.
Few NFL head coaches have done a more masterful job of pushing the right buttons than Andy Reid has for the Chiefs, who are going to their fourth Super Bowl in the past five years. Reid is on the short list of greatest coaches in NFL history.
However, what Reid decides to do with Kadarius Toney — the Chiefs’ unpredictable, undependable, inconsistent, troubled receiver — is something that bears watching. Because, for the good of the rest of the players on his roster and his coaching staff, Reid should leave Toney in Kansas City when the team travels west to Last Vegas.
The 25-year-old receiver — who left a trail of aggravation in New York and New Jersey after the Giants drafted him in the 2021 first round and he was nothing but an extended migraine headache for the organization before Brian Daboll finally shipped him to Kansas City in 2022 — poses a threat to the Chiefs winning their third Super Bowl in five years.
If Toney is in Las Vegas and, more significantly, in uniform against the 49ers next Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, regardless of how tantalizing his talents may he, the risk is greater than reward for Reid.
Toney is only a week removed from going on that 45-second Instagram rant riddled with X-rated expletives accusing Reid and the Chiefs of being liars for putting him on the injury report with a hip injury and leaving him off the roster for the AFC Championship game at Baltimore.
Not only is calling out your boss as a liar in public an egregious — if not fireable — offense, the rant was posted on his social media account on the morning of the title game for optimal distraction value.
The rant, and its timing, was an intentional attempt to deter the Chiefs from beating the Ravens and advancing to the Super Bowl. If that’s not conduct detrimental to the team, then there’s no such thing.
Reid, addressing reporters this past week, said he saw the post and denied that the team lied about Toney having an injury.
“Yeah, well, obviously he’s been on the injury report,” Reid said. “So that part, that’s not made up by any means. But he’s been working through some things. He’ll be back out there.”
“Back out there,’’ meant on the practice field, which clearly greased the skids for Toney making the trip to Las Vegas and possibly playing in the game.
And that’s a risk the Chiefs shouldn’t be taking, because this player has shown, for his entire career to date, that he’s more trouble than he’s worth.
Consider Toney’s body of work this season:
In the season opener, he let a pass slip through his arms, resulting in a pick-six in a one-point loss to the Lions.
In the Chiefs’ regular-season loss to the Bills, Toney was penalized for lining up offside, an infraction that nullified his own touchdown on a wild trick play that would have given them a lead late in the game.
At New England, a ball went off his hands for an interception — one of his two costly drops in the game.
Now, consider Toney’s regular-season production, which didn’t make anyone forget Tyreek Hill: 27 receptions on 38 targets for 169 yards and one TD.
And finally, consider that the Chiefs have won both of their games this postseason without Toney on the field.
Translation to all of the above: They don’t need him. So, move on.
Yet, there was Toney, off the injury report and on the practice field this past week. And there were his coaches speaking as if the potential plan is for him to play in the Super Bowl. Hopefully, for their sake, it’s all a smokescreen.
When Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub was asked Friday if Toney would be used as a punt returner against the 49ers, he said, “There’s a possibility. That’s up to Coach [Reid]. He’s definitely in the mix, though.”
When Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy was asked about the Toney situation, he described it as a “day-by-day” evaluation, adding, “I thought he looked good’’ in practice.
When the Chiefs acquired Toney from the Giants, they used him as a punt returner on occasion. His numbers were modest — until his game-changing 65-yard return that led to a TD in the Super Bowl win over the Eagles last February. Toney played just eight snaps in that Super Bowl, so they struck lightning with that punt return.
Now, in light of Toney’s latest inexcusable transgressions and the distractions that come with it, they’re in danger of being struck by lightning if he’s on the field.