One reason Mahomes is the league’s reigning MVP is he became one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks when attempting short and intermediate passes. In the Chiefs’ comeback victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, none of Mahomes’ 21 completions traveled more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Of course, Reid and Mahomes can anticipate the next trend: Opposing defenses starting to zig to more conventional coverage, a mission to clog the short and intermediate passing windows for Mahomes.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Kadarius Toney, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice

As the article would go on to mention, Mahomes' 8.2% deep ball rate in 2022 was a career-low. Particularly when the team returns a healthy Travis Kelce who can do so much damage in the short-to-intermediate areas of the field, the Chiefs may be pushing the ball downfield more often while defenses attempt to prevent their ultra-efficient short game.

Despite his horrendous first week of the season, Toney should expect some of that action to go his way, as his speed will often see him at the perimeter and beyond the defense. Valdes-Scantling was an incredible best ball target throughout the summer for this exact same reason. They are both difficult starts outside of deep-league Flex plays, but they will certainly pop from time to time this season.

Judging from how the Chiefs utilized their receivers in training camp, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore and Justin Watson will get the most playing time. Kadarius Toney missed all of camp after having surgery for a torn meniscus, but is back at practice and should be available to play against the Lions.

It’s less clear how much the others might play. But they all bring something to the group. Richie James has the most single-season catches of the group, having caught 57 passes for the New York Giants last season. The Chiefs tried to get the ball to Rashee Rice on plays like screens and pop passes during the preseason to highlight his ability to run after the catch.

Justyn Ross is big at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. Veach suggested he could take the red zone role held last year by Jody Fortson, who is out for the season with a shoulder injury.

Rice, a second-round draft pick, is a rookie. Ross is playing his first season with the Chiefs. He joined last season as an undrafted rookie but didn’t play because of injuries.

The Chiefs claim they will use their WRs based on defenses and who they are playing, allowing them to attack in different ways. While a lot of the young WRs got attention over the summer at some point - either working with the first team or just standing out - the story said Rice and Ross, especially, could see their roles be limited early in the season or at least until the coaches are comfortable with giving them a bigger workload. The Chiefs receivers could be a frustrating group for fantasy purposes, at least early on in the season.

The Kansas City Chiefs expect wide receiver Kadarius Toney to play in their regular season opener against the Detroit Lions. Toney tore his meniscus at the Chiefs' opening practice of training camp and subsequently had surgery. He has yet to return to practice.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice, Justin Watson, Richie James

The Chiefs are hopeful Toney, acquired from the New York Giants at midseason last year, can be their leading wide receiver. He played a big part in their Super Bowl LVII win over the Philadelphia Eagles, scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter and later setting up another with a 65-yard punt return. It would be nice to have some clarity on this WR room before Fantasy Draft Weekend, but it seems like we're just going to have to go with our gut and take whoever falls into the double-digit rounds. Skyy Moore currently seems like a good bet to beat his current 10.08 ADP.

According to a league source, the Chiefs are concerned that Toney could miss all of the practices at Missouri Western State, as the final day of camp is Aug. 17. The athletic training staff plans to be cautious with Toney, who has had numerous lower-body injuries throughout his three-year career. But the Chiefs are optimistic Toney will be available for the season opener Sept. 7 against the Detroit Lions.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice, Richie James

As Taylor would continue, "One of the issues for the Chiefs is that they were expecting Toney to continue building his chemistry, timing and connection with Patrick Mahomes during camp."

This clearly sets Toney back, and he may not be back until early in the season. The injury could lock in roles for rookie Rashee Rice and veteran Richie James inside this explosive offense.

Kadarius Toney, the projected No. 1 receiver, will participate in his first camp with the Chiefs since the team acquired him midway through last season via a trade with the New York Giants. Strengthening the connection between Mahomes and Toney will be a major focus of camp for offensive coordinator Matt Nagy.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice

As much as we would love a consistent alpha option to emerge in Kansas City, we saw in the first year without Tyreek Hill that the Chiefs are more than happy to spread the ball around. We've got a full training camp of puff pieces ahead of us, so we'll see how high Toney's ADP takes him, but we currently have him ranked as a borderline WR3/4.

The players projected at the top of the depth chart are Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Skyy Moore. But Mahomes, at this point, doesn’t know which of his teammates is the favorite to be the No. 4 receiver. Rookie Rashee Rice, a second-round pick, didn’t make any major mistakes Wednesday and caught an easy touchdown pass from backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert. Receivers Richie James and Justyn Ross were also impressive with their targets.

Related Players: John Ross

This is an interesting observation from beat writer Nate Taylor, as the current order of the KC depth chart according to Underdog ADP is; Toney, Moore, Rice, MVS, Richie James. Not only that, but Rice is going almost three entire rounds prior to Valdes-Scantling even though it seems he may be behind him in 3WR-sets.

We're still very early in the process and the rookie could very easily find the field more as the summer months move on, but MVS might need to be in higher consideration.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ interest in wide receiver Kadarius Toney goes back well before they acquired him in a trade last season with the New York Giants. They were hopeful he would fall to them in the 2021 draft and then tried to trade for him last spring before finally getting him out of New York last fall.

It’s no surprise then that the Chiefs believe Toney is first in line to be their next No. 1 wide receiver.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, Justin Watson, Richie James, Rashee Rice

The sky is truly the limit if Toney truly secures the position of being Patrick Mahomes' number one target. Though we did see in the first season without Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs didn't necessarily operate in the way that had with Hill; they spread the ball around much more. Juju Smith-Schuster technically operated as the WR1, but he finished as the WR41 in half-PPR points per game (9.1).

Toney's explosiveness should yield a better result if he is often the first read.

Chiefs re-signed WR Justin Watson to a two-year deal, per his agent.

Related Players: Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore

Watson worked as a rotational option in 2022, finishing with the third-most routes run by a wide receiver on the team. The only issue is, he also ranked behind Travis Kelce, Jerick McKinnon, and Noah Gray, which made him the sixth receiving option on the team. It's possible he could fight for a WR3 position with the team but we should expect them to pour draft resources into the position as well.

Chiefs ruled out WR Kadarius Toney for Sunday’s game.

Related Players: Juju Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson

Toney got one healthy game in San Francisco before heading back down with an injury. MVS could receive a slight boost with manufactured touches, particularly if Deebo Samuel misses action on Sunday.

Chiefs ruled out WR JuJu Smith-Schuster for Sunday night’s game in LA; also down Mecole Hardman, who was placed on IR.

Related Players: Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson

Patrick Mahomes has proven that it doesn't necessarily matter who is on the field, as long as he has Travis Kelce handy. With that said, we could be in for the most usage Kadarius Toney has ever seen in his career come Sunday night.