Only one player wasn’t able to practice for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, ahead of the team traveling to São Paulo, Brazil, for a matchup with division rival the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday.
Rookie wide receiver Jalen Royals was the only player on the active roster that wasn’t able to give it a go on Sunday.
“As far as the injuries go today for practice, really, Royals is the only one that they won’t practice,” head coach Andy Reid said before practice. “Everybody else will go.”
Other Chiefs who have been managing injuries participated in practice on Sunday, including linebacker Drue Tranquill (back), Jack Cochrane (knee), and defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott (ankle).
Royals, a Utah State Standout, Has a Knee Injury
Royals has been managing knee tendonitis since the team’s second preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. The team initially expected him to be ready for Week 1, but Sunday’s update indicates the rookie might need to wait another week before making his NFL debut.
NFL league rules require teams playing on Friday to release injury reports on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so no official report will be issued on Sunday. With the Chiefs traveling to Brazil on Wednesday and holding a walk-through on Thursday, only projected injury updates will be available on those days.
Royals was a fourth-round pick by the Chiefs out of Utah State. He made first-team All-Mountain West in 2023 and second-team last season. Last season at Utah State, Royals recorded 55 receptions for 834 yards and six touchdowns before a season-ending injury. Over his three-year career at Utah State, he totaled 126 catches for 1,914 yards and 21 touchdowns.
GettyBOISE, ID – OCTOBER 5: Wide receiver Jalen Royals #1 of the Utah State Aggies catches a long touchdown pass during the first half against the Utah State Aggies at Albertsons Stadium on October 5, 2024 in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Loren Orr/Getty Images)
The Chiefs Have an Abnormal Amount of Receivers
If Royals is out for Friday’s game, he’ll be one of two Chiefs receivers to sit as Rashee Rice is suspended the first six games of the season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. Rice, 25, was involved in a multi-vehicle crash in Dallas in March 2024 and fled the scene of the six-car pileup. He later accepted a plea deal that includes five years of probation and 30 days in jail, according to the Kansas City Star.
But the Chiefs have a lot of depth at the position after keeping eight receivers on the 53-man roster. The others are Xavier Worthy, Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Nikko Remigio and Jason Brownlee.
This will mark Brown’s first game of the season after a foot-ankle injury sidelined him for all three preseason games. Reid said he’s confident Brown will be ready to play.
“I mean, he’s a veteran guy,” Reid said. “If he’s younger, I’d probably say he’d be a little bit more worried about it, but he’s a veteran guy that kind of knows how to go about it. I think he should be fine. And we’ve got guys that can rotate in, too. We mix and match kind of as we go.”
