The Kansas City Chiefs’ first preseason scrimmage is just around the corner, which means the players only have a few more days of camp before they fly out to Chicago to display their talents in an actual game against the Bears on Saturday at noon Arrowhead time. Following the team’s practice on Tuesday, Special team coordinator Dave Toub told reporters he’s excited to see which players on Kansas City’s roster belong on his special teams unit, especially the rookies.
“I want to see all the rookies,” he began. “I want to see guys like [Bryan] Cook; I want to see him cover. [Zayne] Anderson, unfortunately, got hurt today, but other safeties I want to see. I also want to see Justin Watson, the wide receiver, I want to see Jalen Watson [and the other] corners – Nazi Johnson – all those guys, every one of those defensive guys,” he said.
There’s plenty to be excited about with this new-look Chiefs squad. But having so many new faces also means plenty of questions will need to be answered. Toub says he wants to use the first preseason game to allow the players to separate themselves from one another.
“We got to sort that thing out,” he acknowledged. “We got to see who’s going to be a player for us and who can help us on special teams, and this Bears game is going to be really important for all those guys,” he explains. “I can’t mention them all right now, but just every one of them, it’s a really important game.”
One player Toub will especially have his eye on: is rookie running back Isiah Pacheco, who was named the Chiefs’ preseason starting kick returner last week.
“We’re going to give [Pacheco] every chance to be that guy [for us],” he said. “I mean, I just think he’s got all the attributes [to be] a good kick returner. He’s gotten better and better at practice, he’s doing the little things better, and he’s catching the ball great,” he explained. “[But] now we’ve got to see what happens with live bullets when guys are coming down there to take your head off. It’s a little bit different, so we’ll see how he handles it.”
While he’s confident Pacheco has the intangibles to be a solid return man for Kansas City, Toub also understands the rookie hasn’t returned kicks since his freshman year at Rutgers in 2018. The same can be said for rookie wide receiver Skyy Moore, who returned just three kicks throughout his entire collegiate career at Western Michigan.
“I don’t know exactly when they took him off [kick returning, but] I know [Pacheco] hasn’t done it in a long time,” Toub acknowledged. “[The] same thing goes with Skyy [Moore]. We’re going to put Skyy back there on punt return, and he hasn’t gotten a lot [of snaps] either in college, so there’ll be a lot of firsts for them in this game.”
But Toub is hopeful the two rookies can pick up the return duties on special teams because that would free up Mecole Hardman to be more involved in the offensive snaps.
“If Hardman’s getting a lot of reps on offense, we don’t want him to run a punt return and then have to take him out for the first down of offensive play,” Toub explained. “I mean, that’s really what happens, and now you’re handicapping your offense because he just got done running a punt return.”
But the Chiefs aren’t limited to just Pacheco and Moore in the return game. Rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie is also a player Toub wants to see return kicks in a game.
“We got [Trent] McDuffie now too. McDuffie’s a guy – out of all the guys of the new players – he’s probably the best catcher,” he said. “I’d call him the best punt catcher right now, the way we see it, but everything changes when you have live bullets, so you gotta see how they handle it.”
Finally, Toub broke down how he’ll be evaluating players and what he’s looking for out of the player that will make up his special teams unit in 2022.
“They have to have toughness,” he started. “They have to be smart; you can’t be a guy that’s going to block somebody in the back on an important return. They have to be aggressive. They have to have great speed. Toughness. Great balance to block, a willingness to block. There are a lot of offensive players that [don’t] necessarily want to stick their head in there. I’m talking about the wide receivers who want to get in there and do the tough, dirty work, and the same thing goes with the DBs, so we got to find out about those guys, but you can’t resemble that in these practices.”
