As colleague Tom Pelissero notes, Kansas Metropolis had been looking for a commerce accomplice for Toney. With no settlement approaching that entrance, the defending champions will transfer on. After an underwhelming 2023 marketing campaign, the 25-year-old was recognized to be on the Chiefs’ roster bubble. He’ll now hit the waiver wire. Along with chopping Toney, the Chiefs are transferring on from former UDFA Justyn Ross, veteran reporter Jordan Schultz adds.
Toney entered the league with excessive expectations primarily based on his draft standing and his highlight-reel potential proven in school. His tenure in New York was solely 12 video games, nonetheless, with a commerce halfway by way of the 2022 marketing campaign sending him to Kansas Metropolis in return for third- and sixth-round picks. The Florida product had a powerful exhibiting in Tremendous Bowl LVII, suggesting he would have an everyday function throughout his first full marketing campaign with the workforce.
Each Toney and Ross got here with baggage, and the Chiefs augmented their receiver scenario considerably since buying every. A former freshman standout at Clemson, Ross noticed a neck harm alter his profession. Whereas he recovered, the ex-Trevor Lawrence goal went undrafted. Ross additionally landed on the Commissioner’s Exempt Record final season in reference to a home battery arrest.
Toney held an even bigger function in Kansas Metropolis, however his points staying wholesome in New York carried over. Toney missed time because of a number of accidents, however the Chiefs offense fared higher with the shifty Florida alum out of the combo late final season. Toney took concern along with his Chiefs standing final yr, criticizing the workforce for maintaining him sidelined through the playoffs. This blast got here hours earlier than the AFC Championship Sport, and the Chiefs subsequently made Toney a wholesome scratch for Tremendous Bowl LVIII.
The Chiefs harbored hopes of turning Toney into their No. 1 receiver final yr. He fell nicely in need of expectations and performed the lead function, together with Skyy Moore and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, in a clunky season for Kansas Metropolis’s receiving corps — most memorably by way of the notorious offensive offside infraction that negated Toney’s go-ahead TD in opposition to the Payments.
The 2-time defending champs signed Marquise Brown, drafted Xavier Worthy in Spherical 1 and simply reunited with JuJu Smith-Schuster. The workforce additionally re-signed Mecole Hardman this offseason, crowding a receiving corps that immediately has Moore in a fringe place.
