Report: Chiefs promote wide receiver Byron Pringle, waive Tremon Smith

UPDATE: September 16, 3:14 p.m. Arrowhead Time

The Green Bay Packers have claimed cornerback Tremon Smith, according to friend-of-the-site Terez Paylor of Yahoo! Sports.

After the injury to wide receiver Tyreek Hill, the Kansas City Chiefs were set to take on the Oakland Raiders Sunday with just four true wide receivers on the roster — Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson and De’Anthony Thomas.

That was until Saturday afternoon. The Chiefs have waived on-again, off-again cornerback Tremon Smith in favor of wide receiver Byron Pringle, as first reported by the Houston Chronicle’s Aaron Wilson. The 25-year-old K-State product was promoted to the 53-man roster from the practice squad.

The move is not all that surprising given the Chiefs’ numbers at the wide receiver position. The surprising part was that it took this long. The Chiefs raised some eyebrows when they opted to waive Pringle instead of Smith in the first place back on Tuesday. Now Pringle will suit up against the Raiders.

With Smith no longer eligible and Hill out, a point to watch in the game will be who returns kicks and punts for the Chiefs. I would anticipate it to be a mix of Hardman and Thomas.

“All those guys are possible,” special teams coordinator Dave Toub said this week when asked about returner assignments. “We don’t really want to tell exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re fortunate. I’ve said this before — we have a lot of guys that can do it.”

Pringle had three offensive snaps and 17 special teams snaps last week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.