The Chiefs might’ve fooled the Broncos into kicking to Byron Pringle. Secret’s out now
After a Denver Broncos field goal in the second quarter Sunday, Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub gathered together his kick return unit. He had an idea.
He wanted to make a tweak in personnel, though it would involve just one switch. The plan came to him weeks earlier, actually, and he’d even implemented once in a game, but you might’ve missed it.
Couldn’t miss this one.
Toub tasked Byron Pringle with receiving the kick, replacing Mecole Hardman, and Pringle promptly returned it 102 yards for a touchdown.
Did he dupe the Broncos in doing so?
That was the idea. Or at least part of the idea.
“When you’re a kickoff team, if you don’t know anything about a guy, there’s that unknown. Sometimes you put a guy back there, and they say, ‘Hey, let’s see what this guy can do. Let’s test him,’” Toub said. “Sometimes that happens. That could’ve happened with Pringle. ... You put a new guy back there, a team, sometimes they want to test you. Sometimes that’s what we do.”
The Chiefs were on the other end of it earlier this season, electing to kick a returnable ball to Ravens rookie Devin Duvernay. He burned them.
Pringle burned the Broncos.
A year ago, Hardman developed a reputation as an adept kick returner, finishing sixth in the league in yards per return. He took one back for a score.
Pringle, by contrast, had only two kickoff returns in his NFL career. That’s it. And they both came last season.
Nearly 70% of the Broncos’ kickoffs go for touchbacks this season, and kicker Brandon McManus had the advantage of Denver’s thin air Sunday. But they offered an opportunistic ball to Pringle, a man who they likely didn’t expect to see.
Secret’s out now.
The next time the Chiefs put Pringle in the back, they won’t have the advantage of baiting a team. His place on the unit will arrive strictly because he’s earned it.
And he will be back there more often.
“There’s no question,” Toub said. “I think the way he hit it, he’s got a skill there. We knew he had the skill. But once you get one under your belt, you’re hungry for the next one. The guys want to block for him. It’s kind of a snowball thing — no pun intended. We want to get it going again.”
The weather played another factor in Sunday’s decision. More goes into the special teams personnel than simple rotations. This particular call wasn’t a random chance. Toub assessed the playing conditions, and decided it was time to offer Pringle a chance.
Why? His bigger frame could prove uninviting in the cold temperatures.
“When you have a big guy running fast at you, from my experience when I was on the kickoff team, not a lot of guys want to jump in front of a big guy running real fast in the cold,” Toub said. “It’s just the way it is.”
For what it’s worth, the forecast Sunday in Kansas City calls for temperatures above 50.
But Pringle will still step into the mix, along with Hardman. It doesn’t mean Hardman’s days as a kickoff returner are over — and he’s still the preferred option on punts — but it does mean he will need to make room for a teammate.
The two have different return styles. A lot different. As Toub explained it, Hardman has a punt returners’ style, looking to make a guy miss in the open field. Pringle is the get-it-and-go returner, a north-south mindset that fits with the more traditional kickoff style.
That’s certainly how it played out Sunday. Pringle burst through the hole, then made one quick cut.
Gone.
“I knew I was going to hit it hard,” Pringle said after the game. “Once I saw the hole open up, I ran through it. I had two dudes back side to miss. I made them miss. I was running for the touchdown. I wasn’t looking back.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.