The Kansas City Chiefs will face the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game on Sunday afternoon in a matchup of two of the NFL’s best defenses and two of the league’s best quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson.
As has been the case all season, a prevailing storyline coming into Sunday’s game in Baltimore is the Chiefs wide receiving corps and whether they can hold onto the football when Mahomes throws to them while dealing with the Ravens stout defense. Kansas City led the league in drops this year, with one of the main culprits being Kadarius Toney, who has been public enemy number one for Chiefs fans at various points this season — both for drops and lining up offsides to ruin one of the plays of the year.
Toney hasn’t played since December 17, and this week, Toney will be out once again as he deals with what the team calls a hip injury and was also absent for the birth of his daughter earlier in the week.
We have activated Practice Squad players NT Mike Pennel and CB Keith Taylor via Standard Elevation.
WR Kadarius Toney is now OUT for tomorrow's game (personal/hip).
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 27, 2024
On Sunday morning, three hours before kickoff, Toney went on Instagram Live and claimed the Chiefs are lying about his injury status to keep him off of the field, saying he’s not hurt and they’ve been changing what has been injured on the report to keep him from playing.
Kadarius Toney on Instagram Live just a few moments ago says “I’m not hurt” and implies that the Chiefs have been lying about his injury status. Toney has been designated “out” for the AFC championship game for hip/personal. The personal being his daughter being born. pic.twitter.com/mBdYSSi9Rz
— Gregg Giannotti (@GioWFAN) January 28, 2024
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Chiefs were doing this, as it seemed Toney had finally lost the trust of Mahomes and the Chiefs offense, and putting him on the injury report is a bit of a nicer way to bench him than outright removing him from the lineup. That’s what makes Toney’s video here a bit confusing because I’m not sure why you’d want to “expose” a team for lying about you being hurt when the real reason they don’t want you playing is that you’ve been actively detrimental to their chances of winning games.
