Chiefs WR Byron Pringle to see more opportunities in kick return rotation

Kansas City Chiefs WR Byron Pringle appears to have earned himself more playing time on special teams with a breakout performance against the Denver Broncos in Week 7. Pringle’s 102-yard touchdown return earned him AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

“Just overall what a day he had with the 102-yard return too,” Chiefs special teams coach Dave Toub said on Thursday. “I mean the way he hit that thing, he hit it with a lot of courage and confidence and a lot of praise should go out to the guys that were blocking for him too. They did a great job blocking, there was a lot of big blocks on that play and it all came together.”

Pringle had another great play on special teams, downing a punt at the one-yard line, which hasn’t been talked about much.

“Yeah, that was a great play,” Toub said. “What a day he had on special teams, I mean that kickoff return was something else, but yeah that play was a big play, too. It was a great punt by Tommy (Townsend). That ball could’ve easily hit the ground and shot forward. He’s been working on it, and it’s good to see us get a good bounce there and really Pringle needed to be Johnny on the spot because that thing could’ve rolled into the endzone. He was right there, the returner tried to block him, he beat the block, made a huge play right there for us and in the back for our defense.”

Pringle explained that was something that he’d been working on after missing a similar play in Super Bowl LIV.

As for the opportunity to returns kick, the Chiefs have been using a sort of rotation approach at the position lately. They’re doing so with Mecole Hardman taking more repetitions on offense with Sammy Watkins sidelined due to injury. Along with Pringle, DB Rashad Fenton has a kick return package and so does Demarcus Robinson, though, we haven’t seen that one yet. Each player brings a bit of a different flavor as Toub explained. He felt that rotating players in there could give the team an advantage.

“When you’re a kickoff team or if you don’t know anything about a guy, there’s that unknown,” Toub explained. “Sometimes you put a guy back there and they say let’s see what this guy can do, let’s test him and sometimes that happens and that could’ve happened with Pringle I’m sure. We might not get kicks to us maybe this game, they may try to kick a touchback with Pringle back there. You put a new guy back there and sometimes they want to test you and sometimes we do.”

Pringle certainly gave the Chiefs an advantage in Week 7 and it’s possible this could be something we see on a weekly basis in Kansas City. Toub was asked if Pringle would see more opportunities within the rotation moving forward and didn’t hesitate to answer.

“There’s no question,” Toub said. “I think the way he hit it, he’s got a skill there. We knew he had the skill there, but once you get one under your belt, then you’re hungry for your next one and the guys want to block for them. It’s kind of a snowball effect, no pun intended but we want to get it going again.”

That enthusiasm from Toub sounded a bit more like Pringle will be the starter moving forward rather than a part of the rotation.

The next step for Pringle: Earning more playing time within the offense.

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