Travis Kelce can’t police locker room if Andy Reid won’t make ‘repercussions’ call, says ex-star

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The Kansas City Chiefs have been warned that a refusal to sideline mistake-prone star Kadarius Toney could backfire.

Kadarius Toney’s offside call cost the team the win over the Bills earlier this month. Another dropped catch from Toney led to an interception last week, in a game against the Patriots where he totaled just five yards.

Head coach Andy Reid answered cryptically when asked if he planned to bench Toney, and NFL expert Rich Eisen says he expects Toney to stay in the Chiefs line-up, with Reid loyal to his players.

At some point, though, a line should be drawn, and Chiefs fans fear a Toney mistake could cost the team their season entirely in the play-offs.

Tough calls needed

Former Rams Super Bowl tackle Andrew Whitworth appeared on the Rich Eisen Show and was asked about the Toney situation.

He says he fears the receiver problems will cost the team their season, commenting: “For them the lack of production, the drops, mistakes by this receiver skill group, over and over again, you can’t beat the narrative.

“They need a Josh Allen Buffalo Bills turnaround at some point where they get hot, you feel like inevitably they are going to end the season because of the things that have been who they are all year long.”

“Eventually at some point there has to be repercussions for letting us down in a game.”

Asked about how he might address the Toney situation if he was in the locker room, Whitworth said he imagined Travis Kelce and the team leaders would have already tried.

But he says if Andy Reid won’t drop the player, there is only so much they can do.

“I would imagine in that locker room Travis and those guys, somebody has done that. I think at the end of the day you really can’t address that per se, him playing or not.

“I’ve always said that as a coach you can’t expect me to police a locker room you can’t punish.

“If you expect the players to step in, if I tell him ‘dude you’re not playing for us’ and you put him in the game, I lose all credibility, so the coach has to make the stance first and set the standard of this is how we are going to play football on the Kansas City Chiefs.

“And then the player can back that up, and that’s really how that has to go. Inevitably the coaches are the ones who get to make that decision and not the players.”