The Kansas City Chiefs’ opening preseason exhibition on Sunday exposed several flaws that the team needs to improve in practice. There was an additional emphasis on special teams leading into the preseason as the unit hopes to provide more stability than last season.
The news of Deneric Prince’s appointment as starting kick returner for Sunday’s game in New Orleans came out early last week, showing the Chiefs’ trust in the undrafted rookie. Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub got a solid performance from his various returners and specialists in the loss. He spoke with reporters following Wednesday’s practice.
“Everybody played; that was the thing,” He said of the preseason matchup. “That’s one of the important things in that first game coach (Andy Reid) wants everybody to play. So you’ve seen a lot of bodies like you seem like we have four different teams ongoing every time. And everybody played so we were happy with that. The effort was excellent.
“I thought the guys played extremely hard. In the return game, I like to see (Deneric) Prince get some more I mean, we left the guy on blocked, and the first one to get hit on that one, then it kind of kicked away from the other one coming back across the field. So I still want to see him. I want to see him get some more next week. (Richie) James, I thought (he) did a great job. His kick returns didn’t get any opportunities on a punt return with the ones, but hopefully, we’ll get something this week.”
Prince had two kick returns for 36 yards, while Richie James, Nikko Remigio, and Ihmir Smith-Marsette each had a return opportunity. Toub has two more preseason games to decide his final lineup before the start of the regular season.
