KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The revolving door in the Chiefs’ receiver room turned against Monday afternoon with Skyy Moore landing on injured reserve and Justyn Ross returning after a seven-game absence due to a suspension.
Moore landing on injured reserve wasn’t a huge surprise after he left Sunday’s win over New England due to what head coach Andy Reid described as a swollen knee.
“Skyy Moore is the one that had to leave the game, and he hurt his left knee, just swole up a little bit,” Reid said in his postgame press conference.
The Chiefs did not reveal the extent of Moore’s injury nor how long he is expected out. Moving to injured reserve requires a minimum four-game absence, which means Moore will miss the remainder of the regular season. He would be eligible for a designation to return if healthy during the postseason.
Moore was one of three receivers to have played in all of the team’s first 14 games along with Rashee Rice and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He was the target on 38 passes this season with 21 catches for 244 yards and a touchdown while also rushing three times for 23 yards.
In his first two seasons with the Chiefs, Moore has played in 30 games with 11 starts (eight this season) with 43 catches on 71 targets for 494 yards and a touchdown. He also has six carries for 47 yards.
With the open spot vacated by Moore, the Chiefs restored Ross to the active roster. The Chiefs received a roster exemption for Ross last week upon the competition of his six-game suspension for a violation of the league’s personal conduct policy.
Ross played 81 snaps on offense in the first seven games of the season before his suspension. He has three receptions on six targets for 34 yards.
The roster shuffle means the Chiefs have six receivers on the active roster: Rice, Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watso, Kadarius Toney and Richie James and Ross. The club also carries two receivers on the practice squad with Montrell Washington and Cornell Powell. Mecole Hardman remains on injured reserve after undergoing thumb surgery last month. He’s eligible for a designation to return but the team has not placed a timetable on his potential recovery.
Moore played 16 snaps against the Patriots Sunday, his second-lowest total of the season. It was also his only game without a target this year.
Moore averaged 35.3 snaps per game this season, which leaves plenty of work to go around. Rice played 92% of the team’s snaps already, and Watson and Valdes-Scantling will likely pick up a bit more of the workload as well. But James may be the biggest beneficiary with Moore out of the lineup, especially given Reid’s comments Monday about James, who played just two snaps Sunday.
“He’s got to play more than two snaps,” Reid said. “So that’s my responsibility on that. I didn’t have him in on enough stuff. He’s a good football player, though.”
