2 injured players back to Chiefs’ Sunday practice — but 2 go on IR

On Sunday morning, the Kansas City Chiefs began the seventh full practice of their 2023 training camp — the third one with players in pads. Our Arrowhead Pride’s Pete Sweeney counted eight Kansas City players who were not on the practice field.

Cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and linebacker Drue Tranquill we both dressed for Sunday’s practice after missing Saturday’s session. But Clyde Edwards-Helaire — also out on Saturday — remains on the sick list.

Also missing were cornerback Nazeeh Johnson — who left practice on Saturday with what appeared to be a serious knee injury — and tight end Jody Fortson, who hasn’t practiced since sustaining a shoulder injury on Wednesday. (Fortson was watching Sunday’s practice from the sideline, but was not working with trainers).

As our Jared Sapp speculated on the platform formerly known as Twitter, an additional news tidbit the Chiefs dropped before practice began on Sunday morning might not be good news for those players.

Linebacker Isaiah Moore has now missed his fourth practice with a knee injury. Wide receiver Kadarius Toney missed his fifth practice with his knee injury.

Defensive end Mike Danna (strained calf) and defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (ACL) were present, but were working on the sidelines with trainers. Wharton remains on the team’s Reserve/PUP (physically-unable-to-perform) list.

As he continues his contract holdout, defensive tackle Chris Jones is being charged a non-waivable $50,000 fine for every camp day he misses. According to Article 42, Section 1 (b) (vi) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the league and the players union, those daily fines began on the first day Jones was scheduled to report to camp. That was July 21. Jones’ training-camp fines now total $500,000.

Updates after practice

While meeting with reporters after the session — which lasted more than two hours and 25 minutes — head coach Andy Reid said that no one else had suffered any injuries during Sunday’s practice.

Reid also said that Johnson — who has been putting in impressive work at camp — had torn his ACL. As we expected, this means he’s headed for the team’s Reserve/Injured list, meaning that he’ll be out for the season. The same fate awaits Isaiah Moore, who — according to Reid — is going to have surgery for his knee injury.

But Reid said that when Fortson had his injury on Wednesday, “his shoulder popped out — and they were able to get it back in.” So for the moment, the veteran tight end remains on the active roster.