The Kansas City Chiefs are returning to the practice facility as they gear up for their Week 1 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Even though it’s only Week 1, this is a huge matchup for the Chiefs, who are looking to set the tone after getting embarrassed in the Super Bowl in February. The AFC West figures to be one of the tougher divisions in football this season, so Kansas City will be getting tested earlier.
As we all know, the Chiefs will not have Rashee Rice for this divisional matchup, who is serving a six-game suspension. Without Rice, Kansas City will hope for someone else to step up in his place.
One potential replacement for Rice was rookie receiver Jalen Royals, who had a lot of buzz this summer at minicamp/OTAs and preseason, but his status for Week 1 is in jeopardy.
Andy Reid said that WR Jalen Royals is the only member of the Chiefs’ 53-man roster who will not practice on Sunday ahead of the Week 1 Chargers matchup.
— Pete Sweeney (@pgsween) August 31, 2025
Chiefs WR Jalen Royals Misses Practice on Sunday to Kickoff Week 1 Prep
According to Pete Sweeney of the Kansas City Star, head coach Andy Reid told reporters that Royals is the only member of the 53-man roster not practicing on Sunday. If you’re a Chiefs fan, you are excited that most of the roster is healthy going into the regular season opener. However, not having Royals on the practice field to start game week is less than ideal.
A couple of weeks ago, Chiefs senior reporter Matt McMullen said that Royals was dealing with knee tendinitis ahead of Kansas City’s preseason finale. Reid noted over the weekend Royals was unlikely to play in Brazil, and this news just further confirms that suspicions.
If the rookie wideout doesn’t practice at all this week, it opens up the door for Juju Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton. Smith-Schuster is more of a possession wideout, which could help with the loss of Rice.
Meanwhile, Thornton is more of a burner who can stretch the field. He has made a lot of noise in training camp and preseason, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kansas City get him on the field to possibly create a big passing play or two.
It will be interesting to see how practice plays out for the next couple of days as the Chiefs are set to suit up Friday night. We’ll likely have an injury designation for Royals and anyone else who is injured in the coming days.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kckingdom.com ’
