Chiefs New Receiver Impressed In An Unconventional Way

The Kansas City Chiefs knew they had something early on with Cyrus Allen, but the unfolding didn’t exactly happen in a conventional way.

Usually receivers like Allen draw attention with a highlight reel catch or a big downfield block that catches the eyes of the coaches, but Allen made his mark with a sierse of blown assignments, according to coach Andy Reid via Jesse Newell of The Athletic.

“Even when there were a couple routes he ran the wrong thing and lined up the wrong way in the game, the quarterback still threw the ball to him. He made the catch,” Reid said with a smile. “You go, ‘All right. There’s a certain trust there.’ And he’ll work through all the other stuff.”

That trust happened with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who labeled Allen one of the team’s standouts at the end of training camp, per Newell, and Mahomes kept throwing Allen’s way even when the rookie was covered.

Allen has been working at all three receiving positions in camp, and he admits that there’s a lot that goes into retaining that amount of information.

“Just slowing down my thought process,” Allen said when describing what he was working on most, “and just having to learn everything.”

Allen is trying to fill a gap of sorts that plagued the Chiefs last year, especially in the second half. Drops became an ongoing issue, and both Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy underperformed, Worthy due to injuries and Rice with drops and an inablity to catch balls downfield.

But Reid said that Allen has “got tools in there that work in this offense,” and Worthy has described him as an “electric route runner.” Assistant GM Mike Bradway, meanwhile, takes more of a top down view of Allen when he watched the receiver during training camp.

“We try to temper expectations a little bit, but you can just be out here watching him move around,” Bradway said. “You can tell he belongs.”

Allen wasn’t invited to the combine this year, but the Chiefs honed in on him anyway after he had a good final year of college at Cincinnati. They scheduled a Top 30 visit with him and gave Allen a good idea that he was in their plans.

“They were honest with me,” Allen said. “They were like, ‘You’re a dawg. We wanted you here. That’s why we got you up here early.’

“I appreciate that, for them having me here. So I’ve got to make them right.”

The next challenge will be to turn promise into production, which will start on Sept. 14 against the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead.

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