The Kansas City Chiefs are getting some good news about their roster ahead of the Week 16 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Several Chiefs players who had been absent for a variety of reasons ranging from COVID-19 to personal to injury-related returned for the first practice of the week on Wednesday. Kansas City Star beat writer Herbie Teope spotted four players returning to practice, all of whom hadn’t practiced when the team last took the field for practice over a week ago. Those players included WR Josh Gordon, LB Willie Gay Jr., CB L’Jarius Sneed and rookie DE Joshua Kaindoh.
Just walking off practice field. I saw LB Willie Gay Jr. (50) and WR Josh Gordon out here, a sign they are back from reserve/COVID-19 list.
CB L’Jarius Sneed is also back. Rookie DE Josh Kaindoh out on the practice field, a sign Chiefs designated him to return from IR. pic.twitter.com/HHqSsOfxRc
— Herbie Teope (@HerbieTeope) December 22, 2021
Gordon and Gay’s presence at practice signals that they’ve been activated off the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Both were placed on the list last week and missed Week 15 as a result. Andy Reid confirmed during his media availability on Wednesday that both players had officially been activated from the Reserve/COVID-19 list.
Also returning to practice is CB L’Jarius Sneed. He missed the past two games following the death of his oldest brother. He officially rejoined the team last week, but he was unable to play with the short week of preparation ahead of “Thursday Night Football.”
“We’re glad that he’s back,” Reid said of Sneed. “L’Jarius has had a rough couple of weeks here, but he is in a good place and ready to go. It’s great to get him back in, I think it’s great for the team, I think it’s also great for him just overall to get his mind off the other thing. He’ll be able to move forward there. Everybody is fired up to have him back.”
Finally, there’s the return of rookie DE Joshua Kaindoh. He was placed on injured reserve in October with an ankle injury. His involvement at practice signals that he has been designated to return from injured reserve. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he will play this week. The team now has 21 days to activate him to the 53-man roster from injured reserve. Should he not be activated, he’ll remain on the injured reserve list for the rest of the season.
“He’s made great progress,” Reid said of Kaindoh. “We’re glad that he’s back and healthy. We’ll just see how things go.”
The Chiefs are hopeful that they’ll get more players back as the week progresses, specifically, more players returning from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Still, this is a good spot to be in to start the practice week, all things considered.
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Chiefs release updated depth chart for Week 16
