The Kansas City Chiefs could be short a few of their special teams contributors in Week 15 against the New Orleans Saints. Dorian O’Daniel is on injured reserve, Marcus Kemp was recently released and Darwin Thompson missed Thursday’s practice with an illness. There are also injuries along the offensive line to consider.
Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub is rightfully concerned about his unit because of this.
“Well, I’m always concerned,” Toub told reporters on Thursday. “I mean, it’s always a stressful situation, but nothing that doesn’t come with the job you know that every week, but this week a little bit more, maybe possibly so, but it’s still early in the week. We still have Friday, and these guys could come back so we’re waiting to see what happens there.”
The silver lining with any depth-related issue this season has been the NFL’s rules related to practice squad elevations and injured reserve return designations. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL implemented new ways to elevate players to the practice squad as both a standard elevation and a COVID-19 replacement. They also allow for short-term IR stays and allowing teams to return an unlimited number of players from injured reserve.
After seeing the new systems in action for nearly a full season, Toub hopes the NFL seriously considers keeping it in place, even after COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror.
“With the new practice squad rules and the new COVID rules, it’s a lot easier to bring guys up,” Toub continued. “You have that flexibility, there’s a lot more flexibility in the roster and it’s really, really helped this year. That’s something that I hope that they really look at going forward when COVID is all done and over with, that is something they might want to keep, the way they have the flexibility with the practice squad the way it is now. Because we’re able to pull up a guy immediately if a guy is out and that’s a huge thing and also get guys back in instead of being put on IR for the whole season, you have a three-week IR, so that’s another plus. So, all those things are helpful.”
The NFL recently held a virtual meeting of its owners, but these items weren’t yet on the agenda. We’ll likely have more clarity on how the NFL views these rules and their success or failures over the summer after the season has ended. Both the practice squad and injured reserve rules could be extended to the 2021 season, with little clarity about where we’ll be in our fight against COVID-19 when training camps open.
For now, the Chiefs will continue to take advantage of these new roster rules, elevating players and returning them from injury when possible. Look for the entire team to be a strong proponent of keeping both rules in place moving forward.
“This week is no different than any other week,” Toub concluded. “We’re going to have to shuffle it up a little bit and have some different guys out there.”
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