Tag: byron pringle

Chiefs designate WR Byron Pringle to return from injured reserve

The Kansas City Chiefs will get a boost to the passing game and special teams with Pringle’s return.

The Kansas City Chiefs have one of their best special teams players set to return from injured reserve.

According to the NFL’s official transaction report, the Chiefs have designated WR Byron Pringle to return from injured reserve. Andy Reid indicated that Pringle had returned to practice during his Wednesday press conference, but this makes his return from injured reserve official. He now has three weeks, during which he can practice for the team. At any point during those three weeks, the team can decide to activate him to the 53-man roster from injured reserve.

We can assume, following the release of WR Marcus Kemp, that the Chiefs plan to activate Pringle this week barring any setbacks. Pringle suffered an ankle injury in Week 11 against the Las Vegas Raiders and the injury ultimately landed him on injured reserve. Given the quick turnaround, it was likely a high ankle sprain.

Pringle has played in 10 games this season, including two starts for Kansas City. He has receptions for 108 yards on the season, but he recorded one of the most impressive plays of the year on special teams, returning a kick 102 yards for a touchdown against the Denver Broncos in Week 7. He earned AFC Special Teams Play of the Week honors for that performance. It also helped him cement his role on the kick return unit.

In addition to handling kick returns, Pringle also plays gunner for the Chiefs on special teams. His versatility makes him a huge asset moving forward into the postseason.

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Chiefs HC Andy Reid provides injury updates following Wednesday practice

Chiefs HC Andy Reid says the team is healthy heading into Week 12 vs. Buccaneers

Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid provided updates on the health of his football team following practice on Wednesday. The team practiced indoors on Wednesday, likely due to the weather. The news that Reid relayed to reporters was good as he had no injuries to report.

Reid said that everyone on the roster practiced in some capacity on Wednesday, that includes WR Sammy Watkins, who has missed the last five games with hamstring and calf injuries.

It was reported ahead of the Week 11 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders that Watkins was expected to make his return in Week 12 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. While we don’t yet know Watkins’ participation on Wednesday, it’d seem that he is currently tracking to play.

Tyreek Hill gave fans a taste of what they’ll get with the return of Watkins.

“I mean, today at practice Sammy (Watkins) made a ridiculous catch,” Hill said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, Sammy has still got it.’ He pretty much knows the whole entire offense. He’s a hard worker, he’s a veteran in this league, so he already knows how to come back. He’s been working his butt off in therapy during the bye week and I’m excited for him.”

The Chiefs did suffer one significant injury during Week 11, with Byron Pringle suffering an ankle injury and subsequently being placed on injured reserve. The team is currently thin in terms of depth at the receiver position, but Andy Reid anticipates they’ll be calling someone up from the practice squad this week.

“We’ve got a couple of guys,” Reid said. “[Guys] that we can put up that are also good special teams players. We’ll make that decision once we get there, but guys that have played before there that we can elevate.”

The question remains as to which player will receive the call up to the 53-man roster on game day. It sounds like special teams will play a role in the choice for Kansas City. The team has a lot of options to choose from, but a few of those players have already exhausted their two-time standard elevation limit.

Check back later for the first injury report from both the Buccaneers and the Chiefs for more injury news from practice for each team.

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Chiefs place WR Byron Pringle on injured reserve

Pringle will now be out a minimum of three weeks with an ankle injury.

The Kansas City Chiefs can’t seem to keep a fully healthy WR group.

According to the NFL’s official transaction report, the Chiefs have placed WR Byron Pringle on injured reserve. Pringle suffered an ankle injury in the Week 11 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. He was ruled questionable to return to the game but was ultimately cleared for return according to Chiefs HC Andy Reid.

The third-year wideout has been a key depth player for Kansas City this season with absences from Sammy Watkins and Mecole Hardman. Pringle has nine receptions for 108 yards on the season, but perhaps his biggest impact has come on special teams. Pringle had recently taken over as the Chiefs starting kick returner following a 102-yard kick return touchdown in Week 7 against the Denver Broncos.

The team will likely have Mecole Hardman take over kick return duties with Pringle absent. It’ll also mean that Demarcus Robinson will be due for a larger helping of offensive snaps for Kansas City.

Pringle will have to stay on injured reserve for a minimum of three weeks before he’s able to return to the Chiefs’ 53-man roster. The move sending Pringle to injured reserve also cleared roster space for recently activated OT Martinas Rankin, who had a roster exemption set to end today.

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Chiefs continue trend of creative plays with ‘Slot Machine Right’

Kelce’s underhand toss to Byron Pringle built off two other trick plays the Chiefs have used this season.

The Kansas City Chiefs busted out the bag of tricks again during their 35-31 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.

You’ll recall earlier in the season that the Chiefs have utilized a number of unique plays to get points or positive yardage in key situations. A few of the most recent include QB Patrick Mahomes throwing an underhand TD pass to Travis Kelce in Week 8 against the New York Jets. Then in Week 9 against the Carolina Panthers, they debuted “Ferrari Right” which sent Mahomes in pre-snap motion before the play.

On Sunday in Week 11, the Chiefs revealed a play that drew from elements of both of those plays and added it’s own unique twist. The twist, of course, was Kelce taking the snap in a Wildcat look. Check it out:

This play seemingly combines the underhand shovel pass and the pre-snap motion from the two plays. However, instead of Mahomes taking the ball this time around, it’s a direct snap to Kelce, who then gets the ball to WR Byron Pringle. Unfortunately, Pringle turned the wrong way upfield after catching the pass and ran into some traffic. He still managed to fight for the first down, but he could have had a touchdown had he turned the opposite direction.

Kelce spoke a bit about this play after the game, revealing its name and origin. Apparently, it was a very recent addition to the playbook.

“It went in, I think on Thursday or Friday,” Kelce said. “It’s called ‘Slot Machine Right.’ Yeah, I was hoping that we would hit all sevens on that son of buck, doggone man. But Pring (Byron Pringle) was out there trying to make a play and sure enough, we got some positive yards which was the best.”

Mahomes also spoke a bit about the play after the game. He was impressed with the underhand toss by Kelce but also thought the play could have been executed a bit better. He even thought that he was open in the flat on the play and could have beat Raiders linebacker Nick Kwiatkowski to the endzone.

“I thought he did a good job,” Mahomes said. “He was able to sell it, get the underhand throw on that inside shoulder and get Pringle a chance. We actually had it designed to be a little tighter. I think if we were able to get it even tighter we would have got that touchdown. I was even open the flat if he wanted to sling it out there as well.”

Kelce is now 1-for-2 passing in his career in Kansas City. His last pass came against the New York Giants back in 2017. He threw an interception on that one.

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Chiefs WR Byron Pringle questionable to return with ankle injury

An injury for the Kansas City Chiefs in the final minutes of Week 11.

The Kansas City Chiefs are very thin at the receiver position right now.

According to the broadcast crew, the Chiefs have ruled WR Byron Pringle questionable to return to the game. The Chiefs are already down WR Sammy Watkins, who was ruled out on Saturday. They’ve seldom used WR Mecole Hardman tonight, who was removed from the reserve/COVID-19 list on Saturday as well.

The Chiefs only have Tyreek Hill, Demarcus Robinson, Mecole Hardman and Gehrig Dieter available to play. They’ve seemed to have resorted to using tight formations where they can line tight ends and running backs on the wings without Pringle being available to play.

Obviously, this isn’t a great injury to have when the clock is winding down with the team is needing an offensive drive to win it. Pringle is also massively important to the Chiefs on special teams as their primary kick return specialist.

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Chiefs WR Byron Pringle to see more opportunities in kick return rotation

Dave Toub spoke about Byron Pringle’s big day against the Denver Broncos and whether he’d see more kick returns.

Kansas City Chiefs WR Byron Pringle appears to have earned himself more playing time on special teams with a breakout performance against the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Pringle’s 102-yard touchdown return earned him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

“Just overall what a day he had with the 102-yard return too,” Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said on Thursday. “I mean the way he hit that thing, he hit it with a lot of courage and confidence and a lot of praise should go out to the guys that were blocking for him too. They did a great job blocking, there was a lot of big blocks on that play and it all came together.”

Pringle had another great play on special teams, downing a punt at the one-yard line, which hasn’t been talked about much.

“Yeah, that was a great play,” Toub said. “What a day he had on special teams, I mean that kickoff return was something else, but yeah that play was a big play, too. It was a great punt by Tommy (Townsend). That ball could’ve easily hit the ground and shot forward. He’s been working on it, and it’s good to see us get a good bounce there and really Pringle needed to be Johnny on the spot because that thing could’ve rolled into the endzone. He was right there, the returner tried to block him, he beat the block, made a huge play right there for us and in the back for our defense.”

Pringle explained that was something that he’d been working on after missing a similar play in Super Bowl LIV.

As for the opportunity to returns kick, the Chiefs have been using a sort of rotation approach at the position lately. They’re doing so with Mecole Hardman taking more repetitions on offense with Sammy Watkins sidelined due to injury. Along with Pringle, DB Rashad Fenton has a kick return package and so does Demarcus Robinson, though, we haven’t seen that one yet. Each player brings a bit of a different flavor as Toub explained. He felt that rotating players in there could give the team an advantage.

“When you’re a kickoff team or if you don’t know anything about a guy, there’s that unknown,” Toub explained. “Sometimes you put a guy back there and they say let’s see what this guy can do, let’s test him and sometimes that happens and that could’ve happened with Pringle I’m sure. We might not get kicks to us maybe this game, they may try to kick a touchback with Pringle back there. You put a new guy back there and sometimes they want to test you and sometimes we do.”

Pringle certainly gave the Chiefs an advantage in Week 7 and it’s possible this could be something we see on a weekly basis in Kansas City. Toub was asked if Pringle would see more opportunities within the rotation moving forward and didn’t hesitate to answer.

“There’s no question,” Toub said. “I think the way he hit it, he’s got a skill there. We knew he had the skill there, but once you get one under your belt, then you’re hungry for your next one and the guys want to block for them. It’s kind of a snowball effect, no pun intended but we want to get it going again.”

That enthusiasm from Toub sounded a bit more like Pringle will be the starter moving forward rather than a part of the rotation.

The next step for Pringle: Earning more playing time within the offense.

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Chiefs WR Byron Pringle an emergent weapon on offense, special teams

The former Kansas State Wildcat has been playing some great football over the past several weeks.

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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.

“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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WATCH: Chiefs’ Byron Pringle explodes for 102-yard kick return touchdown

Pringle made a huge play on special teams for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Kansas City Chiefs may have found themselves a new starting kick returner.

Dave Toub has tried a handful of different players at return specialist this season. Mecole Hardman, Rashad Fenton and Byron Pringle all have packages where they’ve been in as punt and kick returners. So far they hadn’t seen much success. Today, one of those players finally notched a game-changing play as a return specialist.

Pringle exploded for a 102-yard kick return for a touchdown, responding in a big way after a field goal by the Denver Broncos. Check out the big play from Pringle down below:

Pringle did a good job of reading his blocks and finding a lane to take this football to the house. He had key blocks from LB Dorian O’Daniel and WR Marcus Kemp, who was elevated to the 53-man roster today from the practice squad. Both O’Daniel and Kemp have been key contributors on special teams for this team for a long time.

If Pringle could emerge as a kick returner, with Hardman simultaneously developing as a pass-catcher in the Chiefs’ offense, it’d be a huge development for this team. At the very least, Pringle has earned another look at kick returner moving forward for Kansas City.

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Could Byron Pringle become Chiefs’ main return specialist in 2020?

Will Byron Pringle become the main kick or punt returner in Kansas City next season?

The Kansas City Chiefs are on the hunt for a new return specialist for the 2020 NFL season. The solution for the team could be a holdover from the 2019 Super Bowl-winning roster.

It’s not necessarily that the Chiefs are lacking for talent at either the punt or kick return positions. Tyreek Hill remains among one of the most explosive return specialists in the game. However, during the 2019 season, Hill was only utilized on a single kick return. The team wants to use him primarily on offense, but keep the threat of putting him back there for a punt or kick return in their back pocket.

Mecole Hardman returned 18 punts and 27 kicks in 2019. He’s expected to take up a larger role on the offensive side of the ball in 2020. The team expressed to undrafted free agents when they signed them that they are looking for someone in the return game who can also do what Hardman does. All signs point to Hardman being phased out of special teams in the same way Hill was.

Enter Chiefs’ third-year receiver Byron Pringle. He joined the Chiefs as an undrafted free agent out of Kansas State in 2018 but injured himself in the preseason and spent the entire year on injured reserve. After an impressive training camp and preseason in 2019, Pringle made the Chiefs’ 53-man roster. In Week 5, Pringle caught six passes for over 100 yards and a touchdown. He was also a standout as a cover man on special teams kick and punt units.

Could Pringle be the answer to the Chiefs’ kick and punt return conundrum in 2020? He played kick returner in college for the Wildcats, averaging 27.6 yards a kick return with two touchdowns during his career. While he didn’t play much punt returner in college, Chiefs ST coordinator Dave Toub started training him there ahead of the 2019 season alongside Hardman. He even had two kick returns last year, returned for a total of 41 yards.

Many are looking to the undrafted free agent group, thinking a return specialist will emerge and make the team. Pringle stepping up and taking on a larger role in the return game seems to be the likelier story, especially with the lack of preseason games to see new players work against opponents.

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