AS THE FOURTH quarter of Tremendous Bowl LVII neared 11 mins, Kadarius Toney fielded a punt at his personal 37-yard form occasion the Kansas Town Chiefs held a 28-27 supremacy over the Philadelphia Eagles. Toney used to be surrounded through seven Eagles and had reputedly deny means out of bother.

Nearest taking a strike, Toney regained his steadiness and located one. He reversed garden and ultimately made his means indisposed the other sideline to finish the Tremendous Bowl-record 65-yard punt go back that arrange the Chiefs for his or her ultimate landing of the sport.

The play games made obvious the skill the Chiefs noticed in Toney after they traded for him forward of closing while’s closing date. However this season has up to now highlighted why the Unutilized York Giants have been so prepared to business Toney within the first park.

Toney tore his meniscus all through a kick go back drill moments prior to the Chiefs have been to start out their first coaching camp apply. He had surgical treatment and made it again for the season’s first match towards the Detroit Lions, and his play games used to be the tale of the sport: He dropped a number of passes, together with one he deflected to a defender who returned it for a landing in a match the Chiefs misplaced through one level.

Nearly a while then dealing for him, the Chiefs aren’t any nearer than the Giants have been to fixing the riddle of Toney. Is he the game-breaker who delivered the heavy play games and scored a fourth-quarter landing within the Tremendous Bowl or the injury-prone participant who’s answerable for the 1-yard match he had towards Detroit?

“He’s not maybe your every-down wide receiver with pure fundamentals,” stated Dan Mullen, who coached Toney at Florida. “I don’t know that he’s going to ever be a No. 1 receiver. That’s not his style of play. But he can be that guy in the return game and the screen game and all of these other things you can do with him.

“You get him the ball and you’ll see what occurs. He’s a weapon you’d like to have for your staff, and there’s no person higher than Andy to find alternative ways to isolate community and getting them the ball and make the most of their abilities.”

THE CHIEFS HAD chased Toney for a year and a half before finally finishing the job last year. They hoped to maneuver into position to draft him in 2021 but failed when the Giants picked him in the first round. They tried trading for him in spring 2022 but couldn’t come to an agreement then with the Giants.

All along, it was clear the Chiefs thought a lot of Toney. He caught 70 passes in his final season at Florida, ran a scorching 4.39 40-yard dash at his pro day and had an unusual ability to change direction in the open field and make defenders miss, as he showed on his Super Bowl punt return.

“He’s actually just right,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said. “He can do anything else. He’s predominately been a man that could be a slot receiver, returner, runner, system man if you are going to, however I don’t know if there’s a restrict on his match as a result of he has a vertical match.

“He was a first-round pick for a reason. There’s a reason why we traded for him.”

Nearest shedding two of closing season’s lead vast receivers, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman, in sovereign company, Toney gave the impression this while to be in an excellent spot to transform Mahomes’ pristine favourite goal.

Thru 5 video games, Toney has 14 catches for 83 yards, averaging 5.9 yards in line with catch. He has no longer discovered the top zone. He’s 8th at the staff in receiving yards, in the back of working again Isiah Pacheco.

“I told coach, I told Pat, I told all the guys, ‘That’s on me,'” Toney stated. “At the end of the day, you all count on me and rely on me to make certain plays and I’ve got to be there to do that.’

“There [isn’t] actually [any] mercy.”

TONEY’S STINT WITH the Giants was doomed from the day he first set foot in the building in spring 2021. He pulled himself out of his first rookie minicamp practice to adjust his shoe and did not return.

One team source later told ESPN that Toney’s cleats were the wrong size and had caused discomfort because they were too tight. The source said Toney started to wear socks once he arrived in the NFL, something he hadn’t done in college, and they did not fit inside his cleats. And that was just the beginning.

Toney didn’t show up to voluntary OTAs while he and the Giants worked out his rookie contract. Then came the hamstring, ankle, quad, oblique and knee injuries. Toney also had a pair of bouts with COVID-19. By the time all was said and done, he had missed 12 of a possible 24 games with the Giants through a season and a half.

Toney constantly objected to the idea that he was unhappy about playing time or that he was injury prone, despite vague social media posts that suggested otherwise.

In his most productive game in a Big Blue uniform (vs. Dallas on Oct. 10, 2021) he didn’t make it to the finish line. Toney was ejected for throwing a punch in the fourth quarter after hauling in 10 catches on 13 targets for 189 yards while making defenders look silly trying to tackle him.

With all this on his résumé, general manager Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll decided Toney didn’t fit the culture they were trying to build in their first season in New York.

Toney was drafted by the previous GM and coach, Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge. One former Giants assistant thought Toney could blossom into the “best possible receiver within the league.”

It never happened in New York. Schoen traded Toney prior to the deadline because he knew Toney’s value could continue to diminish below the third- and sixth-round picks the Giants received from the Chiefs, especially if he missed more games because of injury (which he eventually did).

The Giants had lost trust in Toney. It dated back to the arrival of the new leadership in the 2022 offseason, when they didn’t know what the talented wide receiver was doing in regards to his training/rehab in the offseason. By the time the draft came around several months later, other teams were under the impression that Toney’s services could be had for the right price, even though Schoen insisted he never “shopped” the talented receiver.

When Toney joined the Giants in spring 2022, he hurt his knee on the first day of offseason workouts and needed to have a procedure. He again spent the rest of the spring and most of the summer on the sideline

Toney was active in Weeks 1 and 2, logging two catches for 0 yards, but reinjured his hamstring in the Week 2 win over the Carolina Panthers and that sidelined him for Weeks 3 and 4.

Toney then injured his left hamstring in practice ahead of Week 5, saying the injury to his left hamstring was likely a result of trying to return too quickly from the previous injuries to his right hamstring.

Schoen and the Giants weren’t sure Toney would stay for treatment through the Giants’ Week 9 bye. So they jumped at the Chiefs’ offer, which came several weeks before the actual trade deadline.

The Giants used the third-round pick to trade for tight end Darren Waller. The sixth-round selection turned into cornerback Tre Hawkins III, who was the surprise of Giants training camp and has appeared in four games this season.

IT’S NOT TOO late for Toney to become the player the Chiefs long envisioned. The Chiefs have seven wide receivers, but none has played consistently well this season. Tight end Travis Kelce is the team’s leading receiver.

In any case, the Chiefs have no receiver quite like Toney.

“He brings power,” Kelce said. “I believe his skill speaks for itself. He’s very fast, can put his footing within the field with the most efficient of them. And he’s particular with the ball in his fingers. He’s a type of guys the place his consciousness is insane. You suppose he’s were given sights at the back of his head as a result of he sees guys coming from other angles and stuff.

“He’s electric. … He was that piece for us in the Super Bowl and he was that piece for us through the year last year.”

Toney has been with Mahomes for nearly a complete season. However they’ve infrequently had devoted apply moment in combination. Coaching camp is the most efficient moment for that. Toney used to be in camp with the Giants closing while and didn’t apply at camp this while then having the meniscus surgical treatment.

The Chiefs are hopeful that enjoying with a quarterback like Mahomes can amplify Toney’s match.

“I don’t know if [the Giants] were a team that really vertically pushed the ball down the field,” Veach stated. “It’s a fair question to [ask]: Has he ever played with a quarterback that likes to push the ball down the field?

“Now we have a bundle of prime hopes for him. I believe the sky’s the restrict for him.”

The trade to the Chiefs, at least initially, seemed to energize Toney. He said shortly after joining the Chiefs that he already felt more a part of things in Kansas City than he ever did with the Giants. Mullen said the switch in teams was a much-needed fresh start for Toney.

But eventually, he’s going to have to produce.

“He’s an outside-the-box participant,” Mullen said. “However he’s enjoying for an outside-the-box trainer and with an outside-the-box quarterback and an outside-the-box group that permits him to have some democracy and feature some a laugh.

“He’s got a unique set of skills. He’s like Liam Neeson in “Taken.” He’s got a special set of skills that make him very dangerous, but it’s only if he’s in the hands of the right person.”