Chiefs provide injury updates ahead of Thursday practice
The Kansas City Chiefs are set to return two players to practice on Thursday, but they’ll also be missing a new player.
According to a Chiefs public relations spokesperson, Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman will return to practice on Thursday after missing Wednesday’s practice with excused absences. The team will also be without Rashad Fenton for the second consecutive practice as he nurses a knee strain suffered in the Week 11 game against the Dallas Cowboys.
The big news, however, comes on the offensive line for Kansas City. After participating in practice in a limited capacity on Wednesday, Chiefs RT Lucas Niang will be a non-participant in Thursday’s practice. Niang first suffered his rib injury during the Week 9 game against Green Bay Packers. He’s missed the past two games with injury, and obviously also had the bye week to recover. It’s unclear what his status will be for Week 13 at this time, but it’s never a good sign when your participation is downgraded during the week.
If Niang doesn’t practice on Friday, it raises the question of who will get the nod at the right tackle position. Andy Reid spoke about the situation with Niang on Wednesday ahead of practice, mentioning that Andrew Wylie is an option to continue starting at that position if Niang wasn’t ready to play.
“Andrew has done a good job, but again, we’ll just see how Niang does and how he feels going forward with it,” Reid explained. “He’ll get some work (Wednesday) and we’ll just see how it goes, but Andrew has experience. (Andy) Heck just kind of rotates everybody and then if they’re good to go, they go.”
The Chiefs could also lean on newly-activated OL Kyle Long, who earned a Pro Bowl selection playing the right tackle position back in 2015. The team obviously has a decision to make, and if they’re going to make a switch to Long, there’s no time like the present. After the bye week is a good time to prepare for and make that type of switch.
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First injury report for Chiefs vs. Broncos, Week 13
