Chiefs’ special-teams coach impressed with De’Anthony Thomas’ ‘courage’

Chiefs special-teams coordinator Dave Toub was impressed with the courage De’Anthony Thomas showed by spinning out of the clutches of Cincinnati’s Dre Kirkpatrick, sprinting to his right and outrunning the Bengals’ coverage for an 80-yard touchdown punt return Thursday night in a preseason game.

“Those are the things we wanted to see,” Toub said. “He showed a lot of courage catching the ball, took a hit, took a good hit and still held onto the ball and didn’t go down, checked his balance. Once he’s able to get in the open field, you can see how dangerous he is.

“I’ve seen him take hits as a running back, but not in the punt-return game. It was good for everybody’s confidence. It’s going to get this up and guys will block even harder next time.”

This story was originally published August 9, 2014 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ special-teams coach impressed with De’Anthony Thomas’ ‘courage’."