Travis Kelce Lauds New Chief Toney
The Kansas City Chiefs made a trade deal with the New York Giants for wide receiver Kadarius Toney and the early returns look promising.
Toney has already been productive in this Andy Reid offense while showing some of the flashes we saw from him in New York last season.
Chiefs TE Kelce Praises Kadarius Toney
In the leadup to the Chief’s week 11 divisional showdown against the LA Chargers Travis Kelce showered recent addition to the team Kadarius Toney in praise. Kelce said this in relation to the Giants decision to trade Toney to Kansas City:
I don’t know how he got out of that building
That is certainly high praise coming from Kelce who is one of the greatest pass catchers in the modern NFL era. Toney has brought even more explosiveness to a Chiefs offense that was not lacking for that element before his arrival.
Why Did The Giants Trade Toney
Toney was selected with the 21st pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL draft by New York. Crucially, it was the old regime of Head Coach Joe Judge and General Manager Dave Gettleman that made the decision to draft Toney out of the University of Florida.
Judge and Gettleman departed in the offseason which put all the players on the Giants roster at risk as the new GM Joe Schoen and Head Coach Brian Daboll have no stock invested in those players from the past regime. In fact, you often see a new coach and GM look to clear out some players when they come in to leave their imprint on the team.
Toney was one of the players from the Judge and Gettleman era that didn’t seem to carry favour with the new decision makers. There were rumours earlier in the season that the young wide receiver could be traded away but nothing materialised at that point. In Toney’s Giants career he played 12 games over one-and-a-half seasons for a total of 41 recs, 420 yards and 0 TDs.
So, not gaudy numbers but when he was on the field he flashed game breaking potential whenever he got the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, Toney’s biggest problem was staying on the field with constant nagging injuries keeping him on the sidelines. In the end, this was probably the deciding factor for the Giants in parting ways with the former University of Florida star.
What Toney Brings To Kansas City
The Chiefs gave up a third-round compensatory pick and a sixth rounder to acquire Toney from New York. This looks like another shrewd deal from Chiefs GM Brett Veach who is betting on upside here. When you consider that Toney is on a rookie deal and how rarely third-round comp picks and sixth rounders turn into long term starters in the league then this looks like a great risk/reward proposition for Kansas City.
The new Chiefs receiver is already making plays for the team with 6 recs, 69 yards, 1 TD along with 2 Atts, for 33 rushing yards in his first two games. Toney is in a perfect situation with few better than Head Coach Andy Reid at scheming up plays while superstar QB Patrick Mahomes only needs the slightest bit of separation to get him the ball. The wide receiver room in this Kansas City offense is crowded but Toney looks to be making his way into the rotation. His first game saw him play 9% of the offensive snaps and this jumped to 44% in his second game.
As Kelce noted, the Giants may end up regretting their decision to send an explosive playmaker like Toney to Kansas City for only a mid-round and late round pick. Although, to be fair to the Giants maybe Toney needed a fresh start to realise his true potential in this league.
Whatever the case may be, it is exciting for NFL fans to see Toney in the perfect situation where he can live up to the hype he created for himself during his first season in the league.
