Getty Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa
The Kansas City Chiefs are set to take on the Los Angeles Chargers for the defending AFC champions’ first divisional game of the 2021 regular season on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. And the Chiefs, who are looking to bounce back after a loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football, might not have to face one of Los Angeles’ star players.
Based on the team’s first two official injury reports of Week 3, three-time Pro Bowl defensive end Joey Bosa has been a non-participant in practice so far leading up to the Chiefs-Chargers matchup. Bosa was listed as DNP twice with a foot/ankle injury.
thursday’s #LACvsKC injury report
Also listed as non-participants in Chargers practice on Thursday were cornerback Chris Harris Jr. (shoulder) and defensive lineman Justin Jones (calf). Former All-Pro safety Derwin James was listed as DNP on Wednesday with a toe injury, however, he was a full participant in practice Thursday, removing any questions about his availability for Sunday’s game.
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Not having to face Bosa would be great news for the Chiefs’ offense. Though starting right tackle Lucas Niang — who would be matched up against Bosa based on where he typically lines up along the defensive line — has been solid during his first two outings as a starter, there’s never really a scenario where having to face a less-talented pass rusher is a bad thing for a team trying to keep their star quarterback — in this case Patrick Mahomes — upright in the pocket.
Chiefs Injury Report
Kansas City has an overall clean bill of health in Week 3. The two players listed as limited on Thursday’s injury report were defensive lineman Chris Jones (wrist) and defensive end Frank Clark (hamstring). Clark popping up on the injury report after being a full participant in Wednesday’s practice is a bit concerning given the fact that he’s been nursing a hamstring injury since August. So keep an eye on his game status on Friday’s report along with the inactives list dished out by the team 90 minutes prior to kickoff on Sunday.
Defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi, who was limited on Wednesday due to a hip ailment, was a full participant on Thursday. The same goes for Anthony Hitchens (abdomen). Those listed with injuries but have been full participants in practice this week are tight end Blake Bell (ankle), offensive guard Trey Smith (wrist), cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (quad), and center Austin Blythe (abdomen).
Anthony Hitchens on Defensive Struggles
Hitchens got to speak with the media on Thursday and discussed the defensive woes Kansas City has faced through the first two weeks of the regular season.
“Yeah, I think that’s just every year. In order to keep our offense off the field and Pat [Patrick Mahomes], you want to run the ball, you want to kill the time and milk it and make it a long quarter,” Hitchens said of teams potentially trying to run it more against the Chiefs. “That’s what teams are deciding to do and the only thing we can do right now is try to get better at it. Obviously, we haven’t been playing our best in our run defense, but we haven’t in years past and we flipped it around. So, it’s just going to be another challenge for us. We get out there early, do walkthroughs before practice and just try to get it right. We’ve got a bunch of right guys; we’re working at it. All you can do is work at it. We won’t know if it worked or not until Sunday, so we just keep working at it and keep improving.”
Hitchens also acknowledged some of the communication breakdowns he has witnessed from the defense against the Browns and Ravens.
“I just think we’ve got some different guys just in different positions. We’ve got younger guys playing. T-5 [Tyrann Mathieu] didn’t really play. He was our communication guy on the back end the first game and he comes back,” he said. “We’ve also got a couple new guys like J [Jarran] Reed up front, we’ve got Nick Bolton playing a lot of snaps. So, the timing and culture and guys just echoing things and feeding off each other and things like that. We’ll get that down, that’s my least worry for me as a player.
“As a defense, I think our main focus is right now, stopping this run, making it 2nd and long, 3rd and long so we can let our rushers rush. We don’t have many sacks. The reason why is because it’s 3rd and 2 and 1st or 3rd and 3, they can run or pass. We just have to correct that aspect so we can let Chris [Jones] and Frank [Clark] just takeoff and sack the quarterback.”