Chiefs Rumors: Chris Jones responds to haters, Travis Kelce update, Kadarius Toney problems

Chiefs Rumors: Andy Reid takes the blame for Kadarius Toney's drops

Give Chiefs head coach Andy Reid some credit -- he's a tremendous leader of men.

Kadarius Toney had an awful season debut on Thursday Night Football, dropping two critical passes which directly led to the Chiefs defeat. Rather than pile on, Reid has done what an sensible coach would do: build up his young wide receiver rather than tear him down. Toney has taken a beating on social media, and surely knows he needs to be better. Reid criticizing him would do nothing but hurt matters.

“You know what I would probably take the blame on that – when I said that after the game, I meant that," Reid said. "Listen, he missed all of training camp from honestly the first punt return pre-practice on through, so he literally had no training camp until just the last few days when he got back here – and we measured that, we didn’t give him a lot. With that, I thought him getting in the game was important."

Reid admitted that his offensive gameplan was too reliant on Toney, in part because of the players he was missing. Without Travis Kelce on offense, the Chiefs had to divvy up his targets elsewhere. Giving a player like Toney more opportunities sounds good on paper, but if he wasn't full adjusted to the pace of play, then it's easy to understand why he faltered.

"He’s had some time here now to keep working, which I think will benefit him," Reid said. "Getting in that game I thought was an important thing – I mean that part was important, putting him in the positions I did, I probably shouldn’t have done that. I think you’ll see better as we go down the road here from him."

Does Toney deserve blame for the way he played? Absolutely. But Reid shouldering some of the responsibility helps take the heat off of him for now.