The Kansas City Chiefs are getting an unexpected boost from Cyrus Allen in initial practices.
The Kansas City Chiefs need help at receiver, and they’re starting to get it from an unlikely source. The Chiefs drafted Cyrus Allen in the fifth round, but Allen is looking like a candidate to stick and make the roster, and he might even be able to do more than that, according to a report from Nate Taylor of ESPN.
Taylor focused on yesterday’s training camp action, as Allen got to work with the first-team starters during a two-hour practice. According to Taylor, “Allen dominated the on-field work, leading all receivers with five catches during the projected starters' 11-on-11 repetitions.”
The report described a highlight catch, which is all too common in these kinds of updates, but coach Andy Reid backed up the talk with a succinct comment about Allen.
"He's done a nice job," Reid said yesterday. "The quarterback trusts him."
The Chiefs recievers weren’t exacltly a reliable group late last year as they struggled with both injuries and drops, and fellow receiver Xavier Worthy indicated that he saw this coming to some extent.
"This isn't even surprising [to me]," Worthy said about Allen. "He's going to continue showing out in camp."
Allen even beat top draft pick Mansoor Delane, as he used a quick release to sprint past the cornerback, Taylor added. Rashee Rice was 45th in the league in average yards per target, according to the writer, and Worthy’s injuries forced the Chiefs to constantly adjust his routes.
The 23-year old Allen is something of a late bloomer, and Ryne Nutt, the Chiefs' vice president of player personnel, said he was overlooked as he finally found himself in his final year of college ball at Cincinnati.
"Cyrus is talented, and he was just under the radar," said Nutt. "He went to the American Bowl, which was kind of a lesser all-star game, and he blew it out of the water. He showed foot speed, quickness and route running. He was routing dudes up left and right on the field, enough so to get him invited to the Senior Bowl.
"And at the Senior Bowl, he does the same thing to these top corners. Right there, we knew this kid was a competitor."
Allen has helped himself by learning the entire playbook, Taylor added, and the Chiefs are working with him to improve his pre-snap reads. Camp conditions are very controlled, however, so his next test will pobably be preseason games, where he’ll need to be better than the second- and third-teamers he’ll likely be lining up against.
