Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator and assistant head coach Dave Toub spoke very openly on Tuesday, August 20, about wanting second-year wide receiver Nikko Remigio to make the 53-player roster due to his role as a return specialist.
“I love that guy. I’ll be pounding the table for that guy (to make the initial 53-player roster),” Toub said of Remigio during his press conference.
During Kansas City’s 24-23 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 2 of the preseason, Remigio took his lone punt return for 42 yards and had one kick return for 31 yards. He also had one kick return for 30 yards in the Chiefs’ preseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars. On offense, he caught 5-of-8 targets for 51 yards and had 1 rush for 3 yards over both preseason outings.
Remigio has proven to be one of the more consistent returners on the team, which is helpful in a time of uncertainty regarding how to maneuver through the new kickoff format. Because of that and his improvement overall as a player compared to his rookie season, Remigio might have done enough to crack the team’s 53-player roster.
Kadarius Toney and Justyn Ross not stepping up during the preseason and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown’s status for the regular-season opener being in question also increases Remigio’s chances of staying in KC.
Chiefs’ Backups Will Get More Reps in Preseason Finale
Speaking to the media on Monday, August 19, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid revealed that the team’s starters would not play in the team’s preseason finale against the Chicago Bears on Thursday, August 22.
“As far as the rotation goes for the Bears, I’ll probably sit the starters the way it looks right now, and we’ll have the other guys get out there and play. So we’ll just see how that goes, rep-wise,” Reid said during Monday’s presser.
Reid explained that the coaching staff’s decision to sit the starters in the preseason finale was determined by the amount of reps they received between the start of camp and now.
“I look at the number of plays, between camp and preseason games,” Reid said. “We were up some 50 plays from the year before in camp, so I was able to monitor that and work it in with the preseason games.”
X Users Wrote About Nikko Remigio After Dave Toub’s Comments
Users on X — formerly Twitter — wrote about Remigio after Toub took to the podium on Tuesday.
“The biggest news we’ve heard so far for who makes the 53, is Dave Toub just now saying he’s “pounding the table” for Nikko Remigio on spec teams,” one person wrote. (Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) Spags still sounds unsure for clarity on def. depth. Nikko should be feeling pretty good about it his chances come next weeks Final Cut… something to keep an eye on for final game Thurs.”
“Toub pounds the table for Remigio. Andy (Reid) sets his playbook down and says, ‘best I can do is Skyy Moore’,” another person wrote.
“Toub would make a great political consultant. Get ahead of the story and control the narrative in the press,” another person wrote.
