Jamaal Charles climbed into a green cart midway through practice Monday, favoring his right foot, and started to unbuckle his shoulder pads as he was taken up the hill from the practice fields at Missouri Western to the Chiefs’ locker room inside the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex.
Cue the hundreds of tweets speculating about his injury.
By the time practice ended and coach Andy Reid finally had a chance to brief reporters — initial diagnosis of a strained foot and negative X-rays — just about anybody with an interest in the Chiefs was wondering how long the Pro Bowl running back would be out.
Cue the rush of tweets telling folks to calm down.
Then came a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, indicating Chiefs’ personnel were privately concerned and hoping for the best but bracing for the worst. The best indicator might not come until Tuesday’s practice. Reid said Charles would practice if healthy enough and didn’t want to rule playing time in Friday’s preseason game vs. the 49ers at Arrowhead.
“We’ll just see how he does — precautionary measures,” Reid said. “We’ll see how he does here in the next little bit — see where he’s at as far as pain or swelling. We’ll see how he does.
“If he’s ready to go,” Reid said, “he’ll play.”
The social-media storm that erupted following Charles’ injury may have been only natural given how critical the flashy running back has become to the Chiefs. He’s coming off a 1,500-yard season for an offense that was among the worst in the NFL and will be counted upon heavily in Reid’s system in both the running and passing game.
On the Chiefs’ opening drive last Friday night in New Orleans, Charles had five carries and three catches, touching the ball on more than half of their 14 plays. Charles wound up capping the drive with a 1-yard plunge, the only TD the Chiefs scored in a 17-13 loss.
Then there’s the fact that Charles missed nearly an entire season two years ago with a torn ACL. He hasn’t been injury prone since joining the Chiefs, but not even Charles was sure whether he’d be the same player once he made it back from the left knee injury. He wound up running for at least 100 yards seven times in 2012 and more than 200 yards twice.
Reid seemed to bristle when asked Monday about balancing the level of contact in practice with the risk of injury. The Chiefs have been in full pads almost since the moment they arrived at training camp, tackling to the ground for periods in just about every practice.
In fact, Charles was participating in an 11-on-11 session pitting the first-team offense against the No. 1 defense near the goal line Monday when he gingerly walked off the field. He spent some time talking to the training staff before riding off the field.
“Well, listen, we play. We come out and we do what we do,” said Reid, who earned a reputation for running tough practices in Philadelphia. “We don’t worry about all that other stuff.”
Knile Davis, the Chiefs’ third-round draft pick out of Arkansas, stepped into Charles’ place with the first-team offense along with some looks for Shaun Draughn for the remainder of Monday’s practice. Davis had already moved past Draughn (391 yards offense, two TDs last year) and second-year running back Cyrus Gray to No. 2 on the depth chart.
“He went down. I had to get in, step in and play my role,” Davis said. “(Reid’s) whole goal was to build a team where if one man went down the next man would step up.
“That’s the plan; that’s how I feel it should happen this weekend (if Charles can’t play)”
Reid said that the reps that Davis got with the first-team offense were invaluable.
The former Arkansas star was considered a first-round talent coming out of college, but he slipped down draft boards because of injury concerns and a propensity for fumbling. Already, he’s shown game-breaking speed and uncanny elusiveness early in training camp.
“It was good work for Knile today, if you want to take a positive from it,” Reid said. “It gives another guy an opportunity to practice. That’s how I look at it. It allowed Knile, our young running back, to get good work with the ones.”
— Associated Press —
ESPN and the Southeastern Conference announced television network designations for the inaugural Big 12/SEC Challenge on Tuesday and Missouri Basketball will host West Virginia on Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
