The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs have misplaced three of their final 4 video games – together with two straight — and sit only a recreation forward of the resurgent Denver Broncos atop the AFC West. Whereas there’s actually loads of blame to go round for the group’s struggles, Kadarius Toney stays on the heart of all of it.
As a substitute of transferring on and specializing in a really winnable recreation towards New England — QB Patrick Mahomes regretted venting to Josh Allen — the mercurial vast receiver continues to be blaming the refs for his pricey offside penalty in KC’s loss to the Buffalo Payments.
“…[T]hey came back and lied and said they gave me a warning, which I never talked to a ref,” Toney mentioned.
“Whether it was, an inch, two inches, whatever in front of the ball, the referee got a job to let me know,” Toney mentioned. “He didn’t make no effort. You watch the video, he didn’t make no effort to say anything about no alignment. So apparently, he wanted to do that regardless. But like I said, we’re just going back to the details and just make sure we fine-print everything.
Instead of playing the blame game — head coach Andy Reid even said Toney didn’t check in with the refs — the WR needs to take a good look at himself. He’s made costly drops in addition to his boneheaded mistake last week. And how often does a first-round NFL draft pick end up on his second team come his second year in the league?
As our own DJ Dunson wrote, Toney’s biggest contributions so far have been the memes. “He’s the rare injury-prone receiver who’s worse off when he’s running routes. Drafting Toney in the first round ultimately cost Dave Gettleman his job.”
The expertise wasn’t precisely in query. Throughout his senior yr at Florida, Toney averaged 69.5 yards per recreation, scored 12 TDs, and racked up 1,500 yards receiving. Some thought he was the steal of the primary spherical as a result of he slipped to twentieth general.
However as soon as he was with the Giants, he was basically a non-factor. He solely began 4 of the ten video games he appeared in as a rookie — catching 39 passes for 420 yards — on account of a litany of accidents and COVID-19. As ESPN’s Jordan Raanan wrote, he additionally irked the earlier Giants regime by not exhibiting as much as voluntary OTAs within the spring of 2021. The issue the New York brass had with Toney? They by no means knew what to anticipate, Raanan mentioned. And regardless of an absolute dearth of expertise on the place, Large Blue was nonetheless desirous to commerce Toney.
However even perhaps a few of his off-the-field habits ought to be trigger for concern. Toney actively replies to trolls on the web, fairly than let his play speak. He posted concerning the Giants dropping 40-0 in Week 1 — the identical week he value KC a win on account of his butter fingers.
If Kansas Metropolis goes to get again on monitor, they want extra maturity from their 24-year-old vast receiver.
“We’ve moved on. That’s where we’re at,” Reid mentioned.
