Late last week Pro Football Talk reported that the Kansas City Chiefs plan with Jamaal Charles is to sit him the rest of the preseason and make sure he's ready for Week 1, the first game that counts.
Over the weekend Charles, who did practice on Sunday and said he was still a little sore, seemed to indicate that he was preparing to hopefully play this weekend, and his offensive coordinator, Doug Pederson, said it was "crucial" to get him some time because of all the new parts in Kansas City this season.
So Jamaal could play this weekend at Pittsburgh? Maybe.
Jamaal Charles did practice today. He was in all drills. Ran well. No issues. He looked fine to me before I left. #Chiefs
— Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) August 18, 2013
I'll put it like this: It sure didn't seem like the Chiefs had a plan to rest Charles for the rest of the preseason after hearing Doug Pederson and Charles both speak over the weekend. It sure seems like they're preparing him to possibly play at some point in the preseason, but I can't say that for sure.
"I told (Head Athletic Trainer) Rick (Burkholder) I can't just be waiting and waiting and waiting," Charles told reporters before practice on Sunday, comments via the Chiefs. "I want to get in the reps with the ones and continue to see how I feel, if it's getting better or worse."
Andy Reid said last week that if this were a regular season game Charles would have been playing. But it's not, it's a preseason game, and so Charles sat. Charles confirmed Reid's line of thinking and said, "I think I could have played in the last game, but it was just smart for me not to play in it, to prepare myself and get ready this week."
For the first time, Charles described the actual injury that he suffered one week from this morning.
"It started from my foot and traveled all the way up the side of my foot and now it's stuck in the middle of my right leg," Charles said. "I mean, it's a day-to-day thing. It's getting better every day."
Yikes.
Charles did say that it worried him the injury happened to his leg because that's where he makes his money. "If it was upper body, it probably wouldn't have bothered me," Charles said, "but (it does) because it's my leg and that's my skill level."
As for how whether missing the preseason would negatively affect him in the season, Charles said the Chiefs just want to see what he can do in this offense.
"It's a new system and a new coach," he said, "so everybody is expecting something a bit different. They want to see what I can do. I know myself what I can do, but I wasn't with them in their system so they still want to see what I can do. Everybody, the whole team, not just me, a couple of other guys who are high level Pro Bowlers, are still out there playing, so I need to go out there and play and do my job as well."
So, to recap here, the important stuff:
1. Jamaal is ready to play.
2. Jamaal wants to play.
3. We don't know yet if he'll play in the preseason.