Getty Arrowhead Stadium, where Armani Watts played for the last four seasons.
Among the standouts at rookie minicamp for the Kansas City Chiefs was undrafted rookie wide receiver Andrew Boston.
Boston, an Eastern Washington product, earned strong reviews from Chiefs media for his performance at the three-day camp, which took place from May 7 to May 9.
“Many receivers looked good in camp, but it seemed that [D’ionte] Smith, Andrew Boston (Incarnate Wood) and Mathew Sexton (Eastern Michigan) had very good camps,” Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest wrote.
“Tryout WR Andrew Boston made a handful of nice catches,” Chiefs reporter Matt McMullen wrote on Day 1 of minicamp.
But don’t take their word for it. See for yourself.
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Boston Makes Tough One-Handed Catch
Boston shared a clip on Twitter of one of his highlight plays at Chiefs minicamp, which was a one-handed catch he made after slipping out of his break from a route:
Twitter users reacted to the catch by Boston.
“He never seems to fail with crazy catches. He tracks the ball very well!” one Twitter user wrote.
“The amount of talented receivers we will go into training camp with is absolutely absurd,” another user wrote.
Chiefs Set to Have Strong Competition at WR
The strong play of the receivers at minicamp foreshadows a fierce competition amongst the receivers when training camp is underway in July.
First-year players such as (but not limited to) Boston, Smith, Sexton, Justyn Ross, and Skyy Moore will compete with veterans such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Corey Coleman, and Josh Gordon to make the 53-man roster next season. The only guarantee in the receiver room to make the 2022 regular-season roster is Mecole Hardman, who is in the final year of his rookie deal with Kansas City. So despite being a lock, Hardman needs to play at a high level in 2022 if he wants to be valued in free agency next offseason.
Having many young, talented bodies in the receiver room, along with many positions on the roster, is appreciated by head coach Andy Reid.
“It was great. It was great getting everybody in here, these young guys in here. (General manager) Brett [Veach] did a nice job of supplying us with two deep for every position at least. We were able to get some good team work in,” Reid said during his press conference on May 9, the final day of Chiefs rookie minicamp.
“I think it’s a good foundation for the young guys that are coming back. Not everybody is making the team, obviously, that’s out here, but the ones that are coming back in a week will at least be able to hit the ground running, know the snap count, right? You’re down to the basics. Snap count, how to get into the huddle, what the coverages are, fronts, so it’s good.”
With rookie minicamp officially over, next up on Kansas City’s offseason schedule is organized teams activities (OTAs), which go from May 25 to May 26. After a three-day break, the team will meet again for more OTAs from May 31 to June 2. Their last set of OTAs will be from June 7 to June 10.
After OTAs, the last time the Chiefs meet before summer break will be for mandatory minicamp from June 14 to June 16.