Rookie Cyrus Allen Could Grab Bigger Role In Chiefs' Passing Game

Let's play a quick game of "Wide Receiver Compare and Contrast" through seven weeks of the NFL season. Here are your two options:

• Player A: 78 targets, 58 receptions, 867 yards, 8 touchdowns

• Player B: 89 targets, 59 receptions, 735 yards, 5 touchdowns

If you guessed that Player A was the Seattle Seahawks' All-World wideout and reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba you get a gold star and a $100 gift card from Starbucks.

Guessing Player B may be more difficult, mainly because it's a bit of a trick question.

Those figures are the combined receiving statistics through six games for the seven players that have taken snaps at the wide receiver position for the Kansas City Chiefs, with one caveat: nailed-on starters Rashee Rice and Tyquan Thornton have missed two starts apiece with injuries, with Rice limited in practice again this week due to a balky hamstring and Thornton placed on IR on Oct. 12 with an ankle injury.

So, it shouldn't be surprising that everybody and their brother has been trying to read the tea leaves and predict who might be the next man up for the Chiefs' beleaguered wideout corps: Stefon Diggs? Jerry Jeudy? Garrett Wilson? Brian Thomas Jr.? Josh Downs? Dontayvion Wicks? Devaughn Vele? Cyrus Allen?...(record scratch).

Wait, shouldn't that last one be the Indianapolis Colts' Keenan Allen, who is having a solid season for a Colts' team going nowhere and ranks ninth all-time in catches in NFL history with 1,084, only 20 behind KC's Travis Kelce in fifth (1,104)?

Sure, Keenan Allen could be a decent acquisition, but Cyrus Allen, who the Chiefs drafted with the 176th overall pick in Round 5 of the 2026 NFL Draft out of the University of Cincinnati, could also be growing into a decent in-house option for Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes to throw to.

At least head coach Andy Reid seems to think so.

"[W]e're growing him as we go," Reid said in a report by Matt Conner on Arrowhead Addict on Wednesday. "He got a little bit more last week. He'll get a little bit more this coming week."

That "little bit more" Allen got last week in the 20-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks was one catch for 18 yards, but his three catches for 45 yards over the past two weeks are better than anything Jalen Royals (2 catches, 24 yards), Andrew Armstrong (2 catches, 16 yards) and Justin Watson (1 catch, 7 yards) were able to contribute in that time.

Allen did enter the league with some helium. Prior to the draft, Bleacher Report had him rated as the 88th-best prospect with a third-round grade and comparables with Downs and the Minnesota Vikings' Jordan Addison.

Pro Football Network had him No. 117 overall and No. 16 at the wideout position with a pick range of 133 to 217 while calling him a "mid-round sleeper...who was one of the prime standouts at the Senior Bowl."

Over at Draft Gradebook, Allen was the 159th overall prospect and 28th receiver while being predicted to go in the fourth round as a developmental player with the Las Vegas Raiders' Jalen Nailor and, interestingly, Thornton being among his best stylistic comparisons.

Of course, draft grades and college performance go out the window when the professional pads come on, and all players mature and grow at their own unique rates, but Allen did put some good stuff on tape during training camp, with Mahomes appearing to have a growing relationship with him.

But now the rubber has hit the road and with a visit to Denver on Sunday to face the Broncos with first place in the AFC West on the line (3:25 p.m. CT on CBS), it may be time for Allen to show the Chiefs that the training wheels can be taken off - and that they trust him enough to do so.