What Justin Reid's injury means for the Chiefs secondary and future playing time

When the Kansas City Chiefs kicked off training camp with the full squad on Sunday morning, starting safety Justin Reid was an unexpected bystander. It turns out that Reid is starting camp on the non-football injury list with a quad injury. That injury could put rookie safety Jaden Hicks in the spotlight much earlier than expected.

It's common for players to start camp with limited participation if they are coming off an injury or have some type of minor issue that shows up during their conditioning tests. When Justin Reid wasn't participating on Sunday, the hope was that it was a minor issue that might only have him miss the first practice or two. However, things are now pointing towards a longer delay.

In addition to being placed on the non-football injury (NFI) list, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said on Sunday that they would be going "day-by-day" with the veteran safety. Then on Monday, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo said, "We're not going to have (Reid) for a bit here". That implies he's not expecting Reid back in the next few days.

Jason Anderson of 810 Sports followed up Spagnuolo's comments with the following post on X (formerly Twitter):

Then there was this tweet from Justin Reid himself:

The quote from Spags and report from Anderson, when combined with what Reid himself shared, doesn't paint this injury as the type of thing where a team simply eases a player back into action over the first week or two of camp as a precaution. This sounds like more of an actual injury than what many K.C. fans first believed it to be. Hopefully, he is ready to go by the time the season kicks off, but it sounds like he may not be practicing anytime soon.

So what does that mean for the Chiefs? With the departure of Mike Edwards in free agency it means that KC's fourth-round draft pick, Jaden Hicks, may be forced into a major role right out of the gate.

When Hicks was drafted this spring it was seen as a "best player available" pick where the value was just too good to pass up. At that time it was assumed that Hicks would be more of a depth piece, but that may have just changed.

In fact, if you look at the entire quote from Spagnuolo that I referenced above, you'll see that it was made in context of what Reid's injury is going to mean for Hicks.

"You know, one of the things that sticks out about Jaden is he's tall and long, and yeah, he's playing a bunch of different positions. He's going through what Chamarri Conner went through last year where you're trying to learn everything and the volume of the defense, and yet he's not just learning one spot. J. Reid, we're not going to have for a little bit here. So it's a blessing and a curse, right? J. Reid doesn't get the reps, but somebody else gets the reps and right now, it's Jaden that's benefitting from it."

Part of what precipitated Hicks' slight fall in the draft was his (lack of) change of direction in pass coverage. Hicks is a physical specimen who has good size, straight-line speed, and is a physical tackler, but if he hesitates because he is unsure of what to do in the scheme, he may not have the acceleration or COD skills to recover. That means Hicks's ability to get up to speed in the defense will be critical to his success if he is forced to play early.

Hopefully, Justin Reid will be healthy sooner rather than later and won't miss any regular season time. If that's the case, this extra experience in camp and the preseason for Jaden Hicks will just be a bonus. If Reid isn't ready, Hicks' development during camp and the preseason will be something to monitor closely because he may be forced into action much earlier than originally expected.

Also, if you missed Shawn O'Brate's excellent feature on Justin Reid's charity from Saturday, I highly recommend it.