ESPN analyst’s video shows Chiefs’ Kadarius Toney lined up offsides multiple times
No one is arguing that wide receiver Kadarius Toney lined up offsides on the pivotal play Sunday in the Chiefs’ 20-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
But the question that divides is whether a flag should have been thrown.
Former NFL officials say yes, as do thousands of Bills fans. But Chiefs coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes thought the officials should have at least warned Toney before throwing the flag.
ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky agrees with the Chiefs. During Monday’s “NFL Live,” Orlovsky shared video from Sunday’s game that Toney lined up offsides multiple times during the game.
There was no warning from a game official or penalty until late in the fourth quarter when the Chiefs scored an incredible touchdown from Mahomes to Travis Kelce to Toney.
“It’s this for me: No. 1 Kadarius Toney, you should always look at the official to say, ‘Hey, am I on?’ If you did that and the flag got thrown, we’ve got an issue. If you didn’t do that, the Chiefs have got to figure out they’ve got an issue,” Orlovsky said.
“So I went back I watched every single snap from last night that Kadarius Toney played. Not one time did he check with the official, but that play that we’re talking about was not the first time it happened in the game.”
Toney lined up offside on the second play of the game, as Orlovksy noted. It also happened other times after that. But no flag was thrown until the pivotal play of Sunday’s game.
“Toney is in that same alignment consistently throughout that football game,” Orlovsky said. “Never once does he check with the official, but never once in that same alignment did the official warn him, ‘Hey, you have to get back.’
“So is he offsides on that final play? Yeah, he probably is. But he was three, four, five other times in that game. So it’s incumbent upon the officials in that situation to make sure he gets warned because that final play happened multiple times within that football game.”
Here is the video Orlovsky shared on ESPN.
This story was originally published December 12, 2023 at 8:59 AM.
