We now have an answer to the question of whether Jamaal Charles would play with his foot injury in Friday night's preseason game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles (foot) will not play tonight, per league source. If game counted, he would play.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 16, 2013
A lot of folks expected this to be the case. Charles went down with a foot injury on Monday morning. It was called a foot strain with the x-rays negative and nothing else popping up. He was said to be day-to-day and the injury is not serious.
Here's where this gets interesting: PFT also reports that Charles is not expected to play AT ALL in the rest of the preseason.
On Jamaal Charles, current plan is he won't play again in preseason. He will return Week One.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 16, 2013
The "current" plan, so things could change. But this is an interesting approach for Andy Reid. Maybe he saw Charles limping off the field earlier this week and just decided he didn't want to risk losing him for any amount of time in a game that doesn't count.
Is anyone worried about Charles not being ready for Week 1 if he doesn't play in the preseason? My level of concern there is very low. Charles has been consistently good (great?) when given the ball.
The real worry here is whether this injury is anything long-term. The Chiefs have consistently said it is not, and Andy Reid has also stated that Charles would've likely played and perhaps even practiced if it were the regular season. So he won't play tonight, and maybe not the rest of the preseason, but he will be healthy in Week 1.
This is what you said when we asked if Charles should play tonight: