Ihmir Smith-Marsette reflects on his brief Chiefs tenure and future hopes

The former Chiefs wide receiver joined the Arrowhead Addict podcast from Super Bowl week.

Coming out of the 2023 preseason, the Kansas City Chiefs had an abundance—or what seemed to be an abundance—of wide receivers on the roster.

It's a laughable notion now to see how quickly the narrative shifted as the regular season played out, but in the beginning, the team not only kept a record seven receivers on the active roster entering Week 1 (at least a record for an Andy Reid-led team), but the Chiefs even shipped away promising young wideout Ihmir Smith-Marsette to the Carolina Panthers shortly before roster cuts were due.

During the preseason, Smith-Marsette found himself as a popular target for the Chiefs' backup quarterbacks during actual games, which only backed up the reputation he was building in practice sessions at training camp in St. Joseph, Missouri.

In a recent interview with Arrowhead Addict from Super Bowl's media week, Smith-Marsette spoke about the opportunity presented to join the Chiefs in the first place.

"They know how to win. It was basically like when the opportunity presented itself, it was a no-brainer. When you get the chance to play with the best quarterback to ever touch the pigskin, and you go there with an offensive guru like Andy Reid, you don’t say no to that, especially at the wide receiver position," he said.

There's no way of knowing how Smith-Marsette would have worked out in Kansas City, but suffice it to say that the Chiefs felt needy enough at both returner and receiver to bring back Mecole Hardman before midseason in a minor deal with the New York Jets.

While Smith-Marsette played a minor offensive role for the Panthers this season, he did play in all 17 games and gave them this incredible 79-yard punt return as a showcase for what is possible. It was one of the more memorable plays for Carolina during a season where most things went wrong.

Smith-Marsette also told us about his hopes for a greater role with the Panthers coming into his second year with the franchise.

"I pray my role expands. I just want to go out there and prove week in and week out that I can be one of the best players in this league. It just takes time and opportunity and every time I’ve gone out there, I’ve shown that I belong in this game and I’m never gonna shy away in the moment. So I believe I can take that next step and I’m ready to do that."

You can see the entire interview with Smith-Marsette here: