Breaking down KC Chiefs key injuries from Week 11
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs lost a few important players to the team on Sunday against the Chargers. Let’s go over the latest injuries and their impact.
As it turns out, SoFi Stadium is not a place that anyone should want to play these days. The turf has proven to be unkind to many of the Los Angeles Chargers’ own players who call it home, and visitors like wide receiver Cooper Kupp of the L.A. Rams or cornerback Trent McDuffie of the Kansas City Chiefs have missed several games because of it.
On Sunday, the Chiefs were undoubtedly happy to be able to leave SoFi as winners once again, especially as it allowed them to essentially lock up the AFC West once again. That said, there were numerous injuries for the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football and that’s going to have a very real impact going forward.
What makes things even more frustrating for the Chiefs is that they were already down a few players after losing some last week to injuries while playing the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because the news came fast and furious on Sunday night, let’s break down the injuries from Sunday and their future impact. But first, let’s begin with other recent injuries that provide further context into some present roster needs for Kansas City.
Previous injuries
Coming into the game on Sunday, the Chiefs were already walking a thin line at wide receiver with two substantial losses. First, the team had placed Mecole Hardman on the team’s injured reserve list after watching him sit out of Week 10 entirely with an abdomen issue that clearly was not going away quickly, even with significant rest.
Shortly after the Chiefs lost Hardman, they saw fellow wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster placed in the league’s concussion protocol after suffering a head injury in Week 10. A position that once looked loaded was suddenly much lighter in terms of obvious talent and that was a concern heading into Week 11.
Beyond that, the Chiefs were also hurting in the secondary knowing that Chris Lammons was also in the concussion protocol from the previous week. Those positions would be two of the ones most affected on Sunday.