Chiefs' Cyrus Allen Carted Off, Avoids Serious Injury

Chiefs rookie wide receiver Cyrus Allen was carted off the practice field in St. Joseph on Saturday after a collision during a special teams period.

Allen and cornerback Kaiir Elam were both working as gunners on a pooch punt rep, converging on the ball near the goal line, when they ran into each other. Allen stayed down. Two staffers helped him into a cart, and he rode off sitting in the front of it — shaking his head, pulling his jersey up over his face.

It looked, in the moment, like the worst kind of training camp news.

It was a bruised lower left leg. A shin bruise.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that nothing was torn and nothing was broken — in his words, "a best-case scenario." The cart, by every indication, was precautionary.

No timeline for his return to practice has been announced.

Allen had been one of the genuine stories of the Chiefs' first week of camp. On Friday he led all receivers with five catches in the projected starters' 11-on-11 work, including a one-handed leaping grab between three defenders.

He is a fifth-round pick, which is the part worth sitting with. Fifth-round receivers make rosters on special teams, and special teams is exactly where this happened. Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub put the math plainly: "anytime you have a rookie, everybody's on special teams until they aren't."

Toub on the injury itself: "I hate to see somebody get hurt, especially on a special teams drill."

The same practice cost Kansas City a second receiver. Xavier Worthy came down with a deep ball against two defenders in an 11-on-11 period and landed on his right shoulder near the end zone.

That is the same shoulder Worthy injured early last season — an injury that required offseason surgery. The team has not released a diagnosis.

Two receivers, one practice, on a depth chart Kansas City has spent two offseasons trying to settle. Allen's news is good. Worthy's is still unwritten.