Players are being graded every day, but the coming preseason games will give the best information.
There’s just a week to go until we get the first real look at his special teams units. That will happen when the Kansas City Chiefs open their preseason against the Arizona Cardinals in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Saturday night. Before then, special teams coordinator (and assistant head coach) Dave Toub still has a long checklist to get through.
“We want to make sure we cover every situation, because you never know what’s going to come up,” he told reporters after Saturday’s training-camp practice at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph. “We go over it and we go over it. We have a lot of walkthroughs in the afternoon, where you don’t see us working on [the] ‘hands team’ or onside kick — all those different scenarios. There’s thousands of them on special teams.
“We have to be sure that we’re on those — and every group’s got to do it. It’s not just the ‘ones,’ you know. You finish a game, you know your hands team is going to be your 14 guys, so they need to know what to do, how to line up and everything that goes along [with it] — which is a lot.”
In the meantime, Toub is using his limited time during training camp practices to work on the more visible special-teams situations: punts, kickoffs and field goals. There’s been a lot of attention focused on the players who have been working as kickoff and punt returners: newcomers like veteran wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, rookie wide receiver Jalen Royals, rookie running back Brashard Smith — and wideout Nikko Remigio, who had a strong hold on the kick returner job as the 2024 campaign ended.
Toub said he’s looking at Thornton at a variety of positions.
“Right now,” he explained, “we’re looking at him at gunner, seeing if he can play there. [But] he’s getting a lot of reps everywhere. He’s getting some punt-return reps. I think [kickoff] return will be the first spot that’ll [he’ll] be able to help us, [but he’s] also working on punt returns. You saw him doing that today. And then he’ll be a cover guy on kickoffs — somewhere along the front. [If] he keeps advancing on the offensive side of the ball, we’ll find a way to get him on the field on special teams.”
Toub is also searching for Royals’ ideal role.
“He’s worked everywhere,” said Toub. “He’s a bigger-type body, [so] I’m not sure he’ll be a gunner; he might end up being a slot on punt. Also, since he’s such a bigger body in the lower back, he’ll help us in blocking a little bit more — maybe in a different position on kickoff return and punt return.”
But even though the team could be adding two new wideouts, Remigio is still in the picture.
“We could keep 6 [or] we could keep 7 wide receivers, so Nico’s in the mix,” said the longtime coordinator. “He’s our best returner right now — whether it be punt or kick return. He just keeps getting better.”
Toub said he meets with Andy Reid every week. The head coach looks over Toub’s latest 53-man roster projection before they discuss the best way to meet the needs of every unit. Players are graded every day, so their plans continue to evolve. But it is always the preseason matchups that give the clearest picture of how the special teams are shaping up — because only then do the units operate at full speed.
“Somebody else might jump out,” said Toub. “I mean, Brashard? We’re going to give him a lot of reps. We’re going to see what he can do. [For] Tyquan, special teams is going to be a factor when it comes right down to it — [like it] always is every year.”