Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney entered the 2023 season with high expectations, but the third-year wide receiver turned in a brutal performance in Thursday night’s loss to the Detroit Lions.
Toney finished with just one catch for one yard despite being targetted five times. He dropped four passes that he should’ve caught, including one that resulted in a pick-six for Lions rookie Brian Branch.
BRIAN BRANCH PICK-SIX IN HIS FIRST NFL GAME
📺: #Kickoff2023 on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/EBLJ3Rwf5g pic.twitter.com/RzuewZE45n— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2023
Toney had the chance to avenge his previous mistakes late in the fourth quarter when Patrick Mahomes delivered a near-perfect pass that would’ve put the Chiefs in field goal range. Kansas City ultimately turned the ball over on downs and never got the football back after that.
For as bad as the KC WRs played tonight, Toney catches this and the chiefs are in field goal range with 2:20 left. Bigger play than the pick six. pic.twitter.com/LJIfeKU674
— Christopher Tenpenny (@Tenpenny88) September 8, 2023
Toney’s rough outing loomed large in a game where the Chiefs lost by just 1 point. So, where should Toney’s fantasy managers pivot?
Kadarius Toney’s Rest-of-Season Fantasy Outlook
Despite Toney’s high expectations entering the season, the former Florida star was being drafted as a WR4 in most leagues. Toney’s average draft position (ADP) was roughly the 111th pick, per FantasyPros, as the WR45 overall.
However, several fantasy managers inserted Toney into their lineups on Thursday night when news broke that star tight end Travis Kelce (knee) would not play. The thought process was that without Kelce, Toney should see a higher volume of targets as the Chiefs’ de facto top target.
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The volume was there for Toney. He was targeted five times, tied for the most on the team. Yet, Toney did nothing with those extended looks and hurt his team significantly with a handful of drops.
Mahomes said postgame he still has trust in Toney, which should bode well for the receiver’s confidence after a dreadful performance. But if Toney doesn’t improve, the Chiefs have a handful of other young wideouts to turn to. Toney has the chance to be fantasy-relevant throughout the season, but Thursday night was a big step in the wrong direction.
Should I Cut Toney?
Despite Toney’s rough evening against the Lions, it would be premature for fantasy owners to cut Toney from their roster — at least for now.
For starters, the Chiefs still don’t know which of their young receivers will emerge as Mahomes’ top target after Kelce. Toney has as much talent, if not more, than every other wideout on Kansas City’s roster, even after his performance vs. Detroit.
It’s worth pointing out that Skyy Moore, another Chiefs receiver expected to make a leap this year, finished Thursday’s game without a catch. Someone in the Chiefs’ wide receiver room needs to step up, and it seems that Toney will still have the chance to do so.
Toney has shown in the past he’s capable of being a game-changing player. It was only seven months ago when he played a pivotal role in Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory over the Eagles. There will be growing pains with Toney, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll have another performance as poor as he did in Week 1.
Toney is not startable in fantasy right now; his performance on Thursday proved he can’t be trusted in lineups just yet. But it’s also way too early to give up on him with 16 games left on the schedule and Mahomes as his quarterback.
For now, keep Toney on your bench. His play over the next few weeks will make it a lot more clear how to proceed with him in lineups moving forward.