Kansas City continues to have tough choices around who will be on their roster and with a loaded WR group, we take a look at two players who might be battling for one spot next season.
Lets face it, being a WR for the Kansas City Chiefs has got to be one of the best jobs in the whole NFL. You get to play along side Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, but you also get to have Patrick Mahomes as your QB. Lets also not forget that you have an absolute mastermind of an offensive coach in Andy Reid as well. As we know though, the Chiefs have a lot of weapons, but are also in a spot where they continue to have to make hard decisions, year after year.
We are going to take a look at the WR group and take a look at two specific players, Demarcus Robinson and Byron Pringle. I believe these two might be battling for one spot this season. The Chiefs invested heavily in a couple of UDFA WRs too and with how close Kansas City is to the salary cap, this might be a place they can save some money. We are going to take a look and see who has a better chance of making the roster between Robinson and Pringle.
First, both had shining moments last year. Let’s look at Demarcus Robinson first.
Demarcus had his best season of his career last year. He hauled in 32 receptions for 449 yards and 4 TDs. Many of you can remember his game against the now Las Vegas Raiders where he had a whopping 172 yards and 2 TDs in that game. We got really excited about Demarcus after that game, but nothing seemed to come together after that game. He had some good spots and some bad. We all can remember the dropped passes in the playoffs in particular when it comes to Robinson, but all in all, you can’t ask a whole lot of your 4th string WR. Robinson does play special teams as well , so that increases his value even though you don’t have a way to measure productivity on special teams like you do on offense. Robinson is a good depth WR and if we are being honest, there probably aren’t a lot of teams who have anybody near as talented as Demarcus in the fourth spot on their WR depth chart.
As for Byron Pringle, he gets a lot of his production on special teams. He is a valuable part of what Dave Toub likes to do on special teams. You see him often times being the “gunner” on the punt coverage team and covering kickoffs as well. Byron bursted onto the scene against the Colts on Sunday Night Football last year. He had 6 receptions for 103 yards and 1 TD. Outside of that though, Byron was absent on offense. Granted, I think we can all agree the Chiefs had 4 other WRs who were more talented and ready, like Robinson, but he could see his role potentially expand this upcoming season if he is to make the roster again. I think Byron’s value is on special teams though. I just don’t see the physical tools that the other receivers posses to really be a consistent part of the offense.
Now, who do I think has a better chance of making the roster.
I think 100% it is Demarcus Robinson. He brings a lot more to the table in terms of how he can help the team. Granted, they both are on their last year of their current contracts, which gives the Chiefs reason to keep both, however, I believe Demarcus is the easy choice here. He is supremely more productive for the offense and can play special teams when needed, where I think is where Byron gets majority of his value.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they both make the roster for next year, but when comparing the two and determining who would make it over the other, I think without a doubt Demarcus is the easy choice for the Chiefs.
