{"id":87687,"date":"2025-09-03T15:11:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=87687"},"modified":"2025-09-03T15:11:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:11:29","slug":"chiefs-make-final-call-on-rookie-wr-for-week-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=87687","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Make Final Call on Rookie WR for Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2229316045-e1756902046781.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2229316045-e1756902046781.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2229316045-e1756902046781.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2229316045-e1756902046781.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Chiefs Make Final Call on Rookie WR for Week 1\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<div>\n<p>Getty<\/p>\n<p>With Week 1 arriving, the Chiefs have made their call on WR Jalen Royals&#8217; injury.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Week 1 of NFL action is here, meaning all 32 teams will soon embark on journeys to see who hoists the Lombardi in February. The Kansas City Chiefs\u2018 attempted pursuit of revenge starts on Friday, but they\u2019ll be without a projected key piece.<\/p>\n<p>Rookie wide receiver Jalen Royals is out with a knee injury. The fourth-round pick won\u2019t suit up against the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Chiefs Rule Rookie WR Jalen Royals Out for Week 1<\/h2>\n<p>The Chiefs announced such news on social media on Wednesday morning. In their official post on X, they revealed that Royals won\u2019t even travel with the team to Sao Paolo.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the right call, according to former team athletic training staff member Aaron Borgmann in a separate post.<\/p>\n<div id=\"83deedd97f8d8bda1b69a2794677ece2\">\n<div data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RehabAllStar\/status\/1963216207886135384\">\n<blockquote data-dnt=\"true\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">12 HR \u2708\ufe0f ride for 2 day stay with multiple hr bus ride for 3 Hr game and then another 12 HR plane ride<\/p>\n<p>=<\/p>\n<p>Player Health and Safety<\/p>\n<p>\u2705\u2705\u2705 https:\/\/t.co\/AYwAxm3WpT<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aaron Borgmann (@RehabAllStar) September 3, 2025<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Royals, the No. 133 overall pick back in April\u2019s NFL Draft, is nursing knee tendonitis. That\u2019s held him out of several consecutive practices. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, head coach Andy Reid announced that his rookie wideout wouldn\u2019t practice. That, paired with previous pessimism surrounding his status for Friday night, essentially put the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n<p>This preseason, Royals hauled in a trio of passes for 14 yards. He also factored into the special teams game, bringing back a pair of kickoffs for 75 yards. His injury isn\u2019t expected to linger for several weeks; Kansas City is nipping this issue in the bud.<\/p>\n<p>The former Utah State standout spoke at training camp about the camaraderie he built with this year\u2019s Chiefs rookie class.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all in the same dorm rooms, we\u2019re all right there,\u201d Royals said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re all going through this process together \u2014 learning the playbook, learning how coach Reid likes his offense. And then with coach [Connor] Embree, how he runs his receiver room. We\u2019re all just learning and trying to stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the Chiefs\u2019 injury report is fairly clean. The only limited participant listed for both Tuesday and Wednesday (estimated) is defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott. Kansas City\u2019s second-round pick is battling an ankle ailment. It\u2019s something defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo admits has held the first-year man to a slow start as a pro.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Assessing Kansas City\u2019s Wideout Depth for Chargers Game &amp; Beyond<\/h2>\n<p>Fortunately for the Chiefs, they should be fine without Royals for the time being. That even remains the case without Rashee Rice, who\u2019s serving a six-game suspension. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has multiple quality weapons to throw to, including all-world tight end Travis Kelce. His wideout corps is far from destitute, either.<\/p>\n<p>At the top, second-year man Xavier Worthy is a favorite to make a leap. The burner was just a few missed connections from posting 800-plus yards in year one. With an offseason to develop and adjust, he\u2019s likely to improve in his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Kansas City is confident in the health of Marquise \u201cHollywood\u201d Brown. The veteran pass catcher is on the other side of a foot\/ankle injury just in time for the regular season. JuJu Smith-Schuster may be the closest replacement for Rice or Royals style-wise. Reid certainly seems to believe he\u2019s a capable (albeit partial) replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Royals missing what would\u2019ve been his official debut is a bummer for the Chiefs. It\u2019s probably the right decision to hold him out, however, in hopes of getting him right for a grueling season.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Foote is a seasoned sports writer who covers the NFL for Heavy.com with an emphasis on the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers. He has years of experience publishing NFL and MLB content for Sports Illustrated&#8217;s On SI vertical, in addition to a background in NBA coverage for multiple outlets. Foote is a Baker University alumnus, earning his degree in Mass Media. He&#8217;s based in Kansas City. More about Jordan Foote<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on Chiefs<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of their Week 1 game against the LA Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs have decided whether WR Jalen Royals will play with an injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":87688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Chiefs Make Final Call on Rookie WR for Week 1 - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=87687\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs Make Final Call on Rookie WR for Week 1 - 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