Byron Pringle proved to be the real WR2 for KC Chiefs against Steelers

All season long, the K.C. Chiefs and their fans have wondered who the No. 2 wide receiver could be for this season. Many players have faded in and out of the role over the course of the season, but you wouldn’t say anyone truly stepped up and grabbed the position full-time.

I get the feeling that most of that is because the Chiefs don’t actually have anyone talented enough to secure that role in reality. However, I also believe that Patrick Mahomes typically goes through his first two reads which are Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, and most of the time he doesn’t need to go beyond those two because, well, it’s Kelce and Hill. There’s a reason they own such a large part of the target share.

One of the reasons I was so intrigued by Sunday’s match-up with the Pittsburgh Steelers was because of the fact the Chiefs were likely going into it without Travis Kelce.

Byron Pringle stepped up as WR2 for the Chiefs in Week 16.

Hill played after being on the COVID list earlier in the week, but everyone knew that if Kelce wasn’t going to go, Hill was going to get extra attention from the defense. That meant someone else had to step up on offense and it meant Mahomes would be forced to develop a connection with someone else.

That’s why Kelce being out wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. You didn’t really need him in order to win this game and Mahomes could learn to find comfort in another receiving option without a security blanket like Kelce being there.

As we established, Mahomes typically targets Kelce and Hill most of the time which isn’t a knock, and there’s nothing wrong with going to those two most often. But in the scenario where one of the two isn’t there or isn’t having a good day you’ve got to have trust in someone else.

At the same time, someone in that room had to rise to the occasion. Mecole Hardman and Mahomes still don’t seem to be on the same page, Josh Gordon got a couple of targets but couldn’t haul one in, and Demarcus Robinson is still running backward.

The player that stepped up was Byron Pringle. Pringle ended up recording 6 catches for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns on Sunday against the Steelers and he was clearly Mahomes’ guy in the red zone as he made one off-script catch in the back of the end zone for his first TD and put every Steelers defender on skates for his second TD.

Pringle has been a player who has intrigued Chiefs fans from the jump as a UDFA out of Kansas State, and he has flashed in limited opportunities throughout his first few seasons. However, he never seemed consistent enough to be considered a WR2 at any point. Maybe all he needed was the right opportunity with one of the Chiefs’ stars missing from the lineup.

Pringle still might never be the long-term answer at the position, and he may not always play as well as he did on Sunday, but it is becoming clear that he is the guy expected to perform in the WR2 role for the rest of this season. His showing against the Steelers certainly doesn’t hurt his chances of being considered somewhere down the line for a bigger role in the offense.