With the AFC Championship game less than 48 hours away, Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid announced key players that won’t be available on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens.
On Friday, the Chiefs had their last walk-through practice in preparation for Sunday’s AFC Championship game in Baltimore. While the Ravens are healthy, Kansas City is not. The team has ruled out both Joe Thuney and Derrick Nnadi, who was placed on Injured Reserve. To take his roster spot, the Chiefs have put Linebacker, Darius Harris on the 53-man roster.
Other Chiefs that won’t play Sunday include, Skyy Moore and Prince Tega Wanogho are not ready to return from injured reserve. Mike Edwards, Willie Gay, Isiah Pacheco, and Kadarius Toney are questionable, but expected to play Sunday.
Edwards has cleared the concussion protocol, and Gay has been dealing with a sore neck and is likely to play Sunday against Baltimore. Special Teams Coach Dave Taub mentioned on Thursday, when talking to the media, that Kadarius Toney could be used in special teams. As far as Pacheco, he’s already indicated he’ll play Sunday.
The Chiefs never felt Thuney would be on the field Sunday after injuring his pectoral muscle, so five-year veteran Nick Allegretti took all the reps at left guard and got the start. He did a solid job on Sunday against the Bills, replacing Thuney in the fourth quarter, but he has yet to be asked to be a starter in a game of this magnitude.
Fortunately, the Chiefs have enough depth on the offensive line to move Allegretti to center and put Humphries at guard. They experimented with their offensive line rotation in the season finale at Los Angeles.
Either way, the loss of Thuney is significant for the offensive line, but Allegretti has played enough games, and he knows the offense, so I’m not concerned that he can get the job done. It also helps that he has veteran left tackle Donovan Smith and the Humphries on each hip to help him with protection alignments.
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