Tershawn Wharton missed Friday’s Chiefs practice; 4 others also out

On Friday at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, the Kansas City Chiefs began the 16th full practice of their 2023 training camp. As players arrived on the practice field, Arrowhead Pride’s Pete Sweeney reported that five Kansas City players were missing.

Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire — who missed Tuesday’s last public practice on the sick list — was back to work.

But Tershawn Wharton was absent on Friday. The defensive tackle started training camp on the Active/PUP list as he rehabbed from last season’s ACL injury. He was activated on August 2 and had worked his way back to signficant practice snaps.

We expect to learn more about Wharton’s situation after practice concludes.

Starting cornerback L’Jarius Sneed missed his eight consecutive practice with a sore, inflamed knee. Tight end Jody Fortson missed his 11th after dislocating his shoulder. Wide receiver Kadarius Toney has now missed 13 practices following knee surgery.

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. Those daily fines began on the first day Jones was scheduled to report to camp: July 21. Now that he’s missed 22 days, Jones’ training camp fines total $1.1 million.

He has also incurred almost $99,000 in fines by missing June’s mandatory minicamp — and if he does not report before Sunday’s preseason game against the New Orleans Saints, he will be fined an additional $1.08 million, which is based on 1/18th of his $19.5 million base salary for 2023, per Article 42, Section 1 (b) (vii) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association..

Updates after practice

When Friday’s shorter, lighter 10-10-10 practice concluded, head coach Andy Reid said that all four injured players who had been absent on Friday — plus running back Isiah Pacheco, who still hasn’t been cleared for full contact — will not play in Sunday’s first preseason game against the New Orleans Saints.

Wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette was reported to have left practice after sustaining an upper-body injury of some kind. Reid did not provide any additional information about that injury — or any additional information about Wharton.