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Kansas City Chiefs WR Byron Pringle has been taking full advantage of his opportunities over the past several weeks. The 2018 undrafted free agent has made limited contributions up until this point, notching a few flashy blocks and plays on special teams last season. With an injury to WR Sammy Watkins, Pringle is seeing more opportunities on special teams and the offense. In turn, he’s starting to make an impact on the scoreboard.
Pringle had a key 37-yard reception on third-and-12 against the Buffalo Bills in Week 6 which helped put the game on ice. He followed it up with a great game in Week 7 against the Denver Broncos, notching the longest play from scrimmage in the NFL this season with a 102-yard kick return for a touchdown. It was his first kick return of the 2020 season and I reckon it won’t be his last.
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“He was a good player in college with the return game,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said following the game. “He was good in the preseason when we did it, he was healthy, so we wanted to give him an opportunity back there to return. You see how he hits it, that becomes important on kickoff returns. I thought he did a nice job with it. He hid it hard and fast, and everything else.”
Pringle has boasted great vision on kick returns throughout his football-playing career. As a Kansas State Wildcat, Pringle has 39 career returns for over 1,000 yards and two touchdowns. When he lined up in the endzone to return the kick, he already knew that he was going to take it out with the intent to score.
“When they kicked the ball to me, I knew it was going right,” Pringle told reporters after the game. “I just took full advantage of my opportunity being back there, for one, as the kickoff returner for this game. I knew I was going to hit it hard, and once I saw the hole open up, I just ran through with power. I knew I had two dudes backside to make miss and once I made them miss, I just ran for the touchdown. I wasn’t looking back.”
But that wasn’t the only area where Pringle impacted the game in Week 7. He is also one of the Chiefs’ starting gunners on the punt coverage team. He helped rookie punter Tommy Townsend this week, downing one of his punts at the one-yard line.
Shout out to our punter Tommy Townsend for this PERFECT punt yesterday 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Wyf9s2NMSN
— CHIEFS HIGHLIGHTS (@ChiefsHighlight) October 27, 2020
“We never stop working on it and me especially because last year in the Super Bowl I missed one,” Pringle said. “I told myself, ‘next time I’m able to throw it back into the field of play, I’m going to do the best that I can to get it back to the other players on the field.’ The returner was blocking me and I knew he wasn’t going to block me for that long. Once I saw the ball take a bounce I knew it was coming back towards me so I just picked it up and I was so happy I made that play.”
As for Pringle’s outlook for the rest of the season, his workload will be a game-by-game discussion. He’s one of the many players that Coach Reid has to choose from. Once Watkins returns, Pringle very well could be relegated to special teams duty. Reid now at least has a recent reminder — whenever Pringle does get opportunities — he’ll be ready to make an impact.
“Yeah, he just needs to keep being him and stay healthy doing it and roll,” Reid said. “We’ve seen him periodically throughout – either in the preseason with his return game, we saw it in college at Kansas State there… so I think as far as working in the offense, he is there. [We] just don’t have enough spots. [We’re] going to have to kick the tight ends out of the game plan or the running backs. But when given the opportunity, everyone has trust in him.”
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