The Kansas City Chiefs are in the middle of an ongoing offensive experiment. They have to be. That's the only way to explain how they continue to lose so many players on that side of the ball week after week.
The latest news out of Kansas City has the Chiefs down two more starters heading into Week 8, a scheduled game at Allegiant Stadium to visit the Las Vegas Raiders in the first of two divisional tilts this year. Those starters are wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and cornerback Jaylen Watson.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke with the media on Monday and detailed the latest injury updates for the Chiefs. He made it clear then that the team already knew both players would miss the following Sunday's game.
The Chiefs are going to find out just how many wide receivers you actually need to play offense in the National Football League.
The news was expected for Watson given that he was seen with crutches following a leg injury that is suspected to be a broken ankle, pending further tests for confirmation as of press time. As for Smith-Schuster, the news that he'll miss a game is a bit of a surprise and further complicates a very needy position for the Chiefs.
Smith-Schuster was a late roster addition heading into the regular season after being released by the New England Patriots this summer. The Chiefs originally signed Marquise "Hollywood" Brown as their primary free agent target at wideout to bolster the position and they followed that up with the drafting of Xavier Worthy out of Texas in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Together with holdover Rashee Rice, the Chiefs had a dynamic new quartet of receivers to remake the position.
Unfortunately, Brown was injured on the very first play of the preseason with a sternoclavicular injury, taking him out for the year. One month later, Rice went down awkwardly in Week 4 with an LCL injury and was also lost for the rest of the season. Now with the loss of Smith-Schuster in Week 8, the pickings are slim for the Chiefs at receiver.
The Chiefs are connected via trade rumors to a number of potential targets, but every day that goes by is another day more it's going to take to be ready enough to step in. Without a new deal or signing early this week, it's likely the Chiefs will ask more from Worthy in Week 8 while hoping that Skyy Moore, Justin Watson, or someone else can step up in the interim.