The Kansas City Chiefs nearly escaped Caesars Superdome with a win over the New Orleans Saints, but some late dramatics led to Andy Reid's bunch dropping to 0-1 to start the preseason. Additionally, the Chiefs were unable to get out of the game completely healthy.
According to Reid in his postgame press conference, a pair of Chiefs rookie cornerbacks suffered injuries during Sunday's game. Seventh-round pick Nic Jones fractured multiple fingers on his left hand, and undrafted free agent signing Anthony Witherstone is nursing a big toe ailment. When asked whether he had a potential timeline for Jones's recovery, Reid didn't go into great specifics.
"I don't," Reid said. "I'll know more here in the next day or so, but we know it's broken. Some of those you can just cast up [but] other ones you have to have surgery on. We'll see how that goes."
Jones, the 250th pick in April's NFL Draft, was the Chiefs' final pick of the year. The 6-foot, 189-pound cornerback out of Ball State posted good speed scores during the pre-draft process and ended up grading out with a 6.32 Relative Athletic Score, adding another intriguing piece to Kansas City's secondary. Steve Spagnuolo's defensive scheme has put the 21-year-old through multiple tests this spring and summer, and Sunday was his first dose of live NFL action. According to Adam Teicher of ESPN, Jones played 12 snaps on defense before exiting the game.
Witherstone, a 23-year-old rookie from Merrimack College, wasn't selected in April's draft but landed in Kansas City not too long thereafter. Facing a serious uphill battle to make the end of the 53-man roster, he was set to use this preseason to compete for a possible practice squad spot with the team. Per Teicher's count, he logged nine snaps in Sunday's game. Reid didn't elaborate on a potential injury timeline for him and didn't dive into the severity of his toe injury. For now, though, two young defensive backs are at less than 100% following one preseason outing.
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