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The Kansas City Chiefs took the practice field on Wednesday, October 12 with two players returning from injury.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said prior to practice that rookie first-round pick Trent McDuffie (injured reserve) and kicker Harrison Butker (ankle) would return to practice on Wednesday.
McDuffie was placed on injured reserve on September 13 due to a hamstring injury sustained in the regular season opener against the Arizona Cardinals. Practicing on Wednesday opens the 21-day window in which Kansas City can activate McDuffie from injured reserve. This does not guarantee that McDuffie will be ready to play against the Chiefs’ Week 6 opponent, the Buffalo Bills, however.
Butker suffered an ankle injury in the regular season opener and hasn’t played since. He hadn’t practiced since he did so on a limited basis on Wednesday, September 28. So, returning to practice on Wednesday is a good sign that Butker is nearing a return.
Three players that won’t be practicing on Wednesday are rookie safety Brian Cook (concussion protocol), cornerback Rashad Fenton (hamstring spasm), and special teams standout Chris Lammons (hip pointer), per Reid. All three players will have to register at least one practice in some capacity if they want a shot at playing against the Bills on Sunday, October 16.
MVS Talks Breakout Game in Week 5
One of the promising signs for the Chiefs in the team’s Week 5 win over the Las Vegas Raiders was the play of receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
MVS, who signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Chiefs this offseason, caught 6 passes on 8 targets for 90 yards against the Raiders, which are all single-game highs for MVS in a Chiefs uniform. Even better — the big game for MVS took place on his 28th birthday.
After the game, MVS spoke about his best game since joining Kansas City.
“Obviously it was good to go out and get this win on my birthday – wanted to throw that in there,” MVS told the media on October 10. “It was good being able to bounce back after being down 17-0 to a good football team. No matter what their record says, they’re a good football team, they’re our rivals. We were able to bounce back and get through that.”
Through 5 games, MVS has recorded 19 catches on 31 targets and 258 receiving yards. When asked about what has led to an increase in production on the field MVS gave credit to one thing: opportunities.
“It’s not really a breakthrough, it’s just the opportunities. I think that we’re an offense where anyone can be in that position any week,” MVS explained. “Sometimes it’s going to be me, sometimes it’s going to be another guy. That’s the beauty of what we do. I think it’s great that it’s not just going to be one guy every week. I think that’s going to have our success be really good down the road.”
Mahomes Happy That MVS Stepped Up
As for Kansas City’s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes — he emphasized the importance of MVS stepping up in a rivalry game in primetime.
“We needed guys like Mecole (Hardman), Marquez (Valdes‐ Scantling), Skyy (Moore), JuJu (Smith‐Schuster), we needed those guys to step up in different gains and make big plays and today it was Marquez that was the big guy that made a lot of big plays happen and that’s stuff that we’re going to need because I mean, obviously people know we’re going to throw Travis (Kelce) the ball so in certain situations they’re going to double team him,” Mahomes said during his postgame press conference on October 10. “If we can show we can win with other guys, that’ll kind of take that away and then we can open up the entire offense.”
