Karving Out a Role for Kadarius Toney
With a battered WR room, Kadarius Toney shines vs the Jaguars in an expanded role.
In just his third full week on the Kansas City Chiefs roster, Kadarius Toney was put into a peculiar position of the team needing him to fulfill some significant snaps… and boy did he pass the test. Mecole Hardman was dealing with an abdominal muscle injury and was unable to play against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Juju Smith-Schuster - and Marquez Valdes-Scantling who was able to return - had to leave the game early. This left the Chiefs extremely short on experienced wide receivers but gave Toney his chance to shine.
The stat line for Toney reads very well with 6 touches, 91 total yards, and his first NFL Touchdown but more importantly was how the Chiefs are incorporating him into the offense. With a week of practice and Hardman out, there was a clear role available for him but there were still questions of if that would be the extent of it. The ability for the Chiefs to put Toney in position to create dynamic plays was never really in question; in fact it was all but certain.

The issue left to address is how the Chiefs utilize Toney in less designed concepts and more in the flow of the true offense. Getting him in space to make dynamic plays is a great idea but that’s also a role that is often calling upon Hardman. The Chiefs will need to find a way to utilize one or both of these guys in more than just manufactured situations if the offense is to take another step this season. This game presented a quality opportunity to show whether or not that was a true possibility.
Kadarius Toney’s Role in the Chiefs’ Offense
Single Read Concepts
Something that was really promising to see from the Chiefs and Toney was an increase in route variety against Jacksonville. Even more specific was finding a role for Toney on some of the more basic plays the Chiefs like to run where the ball gets out quickly. These plays are usually installed within the first couple days of training camp and will be fallen back on throughout the year.
For that reason, it was good to see Toney run and get a target on the Double Sit concept, get a target on a Slant, and of course the shot play with the Sluggo. Patrick Mahomes is trying to hit the back of his drop and get the ball out quickly on these plays based around pre-snap or a singular post-snap read.
Timing and position on these plays are critical as the quarterback doesn’t have the time to wait on a receiver if that’s where he decides the ball needs to go. Toney being able to create separation on the shorter routes in a timely manner - even with the drop on the Slant - is a great start in terms of building the trust.
Then there is obviously the big play, the Sluggo or Slant-and-Go route off of the Mahomes’ pump fake. It’s a shot play that is designed for Toney to win vertically and he has to do so with specific timing because there isn’t a next progression within the play’s structure. A defensive holding penalty threw off some of that timing but Toney was still trust to go make a play on a football and boy did he.
Progression Based Concepts
These concepts are still going to be relatively basic and installed early on within the offensive structure but are working under the umbrella of a QB actively reading out the field. This means timing is important again but with the QB reading out the field there is often more time available to work to a deeper route or set up a cornerback to create separation. There are still going to be expectations of a receiver being in a certain part of the field to either receive the ball or influence the defense making it an even bigger test of trust.
Toney was a little more of a mixed bag in these scenarios. The Chiefs love their Smash concept this year and Toney functionally does what he needs to do in terms of pulling the CB up field. This allows a route to be run into the flat and force one player to defender too big of an area and leaves an open player (ball was unfortunately off the mark).
The next play it appears the Chiefs try to slip in a bootleg play-action vertical flood concept and get three players working downfield to the same half of the field. Toney is on a deep crossing route to clear space for the Post above him if not just run completely open on his own as the Corner route pulls defenders away. Unfortunately Jacksonville does a good job not being pinned by the tight end blocking and doesn’t really allow for the play to develop and it becomes a check-down to the RB.
The final play is probably the least fortunate for Toney who is working as one of the two receivers opposite of a Drive concept. There are a lot of combinations that can be played to the backside - where Toney and MVS are aligned - but it looks like they are both running verticals to attack what appears to be a Tampa-2 like coverage shell. Mahomes seems to recognize that and if Toney and MVS both get vertical, the deep safety won’t be able to cover both of them.
Toney is unable to get free from the press before Mahomes is forced to move to the Drag route as part of the drive concept. The play ultimately works and hits the most common route on this particular play but there was certainly a chance for a dynamic play downfield had Toney been able to get vertically with MVS earlier in the rep.
Manufactured Touches
Kadarius Toney can’t be mentioned without at least showcasing some of the stuff he has done in the open field so this is the nod to this section. Once Mecole Hardman returns it will be interesting to see how they split up these reps because both of them have been productive on them, albeit Toney in a much smaller sample size.
Toney’s ability to simply make players miss is invaluable so hopefully the Chiefs still use him in this way even once Hardman is back simply for that reason. There is certainly an avenue for the Chiefs to use both like they found success with Hardman when they still had Tyreek Hill but that also didn’t happen until Hill had developed into a stud WR and didn’t need manufactured touches to put his imprint on the game.
Going Forward
It’s been two games for Kadarius Toney in a Chiefs uniform and he’s already seen an incredible uptick in usage. Not simply his volume but how he’s being utilized and the trust the team is putting on his shoulders. With Hardman missing this past week it was anticipated that Toney would get some bits of his role and look good doing so.
He did that but also so much more. The Chiefs worked him in on some of their basic concepts that have a singular read. This means there was trust that he could win on his route and do so on the timing they wanted. That’s big news for the Chiefs because they’ve struggled to find receivers they feel can reliably do that and teams have found success dipping into man coverage against them for that reason.
Toney provides another potential answer in that regard whether it’s a short route or a vertical shot down the field. Where he still has to blossom and develop within the offense is on more complex, progression based plays. The sample size is miniscule so there is no cause for concern but so far, Toney’s targets are coming entirely manufactured plays or single-read plays where he is determined to have the best leverage.
He can still be an incredibly useful piece to the Chiefs roster in this exact role for the rest of the season, but the offense could really go to another level if he’s able to work himself into the progression based concepts.
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