KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs have played in five of the last seven Super Bowls and won three of them for countless reasons.
Most are obvious: A first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Fame-bound coach, quarterback and tight end. One of the greatest defensive coordinators in NFL history. A marvelous kicker. Sheer organizational synergy.
At some level, though, it’s also about the more mundane elements.
Like in the trenches — a point reverse-amplified, alas, by their Super Bowl losses — and in the margins. And the sum of it all.
“The strength of our team is the team, right?” long snapper James Winchester said after the Chiefs beat Buffalo, 32-29, in the last AFC championship game.
To win that day, and many days last season, took about everybody — including the seldom-seen Nikko Remigio unfurling a pivotal 41-yard punt return.
That came a week after Remigio made his NFL return debut in the AFC divisional round against the visiting Houston Texans by taking the opening kickoff 63 yards to jump-start what became a 23-14 win.
No wonder special teams coordinator Dave Toub remains enamored of Remigio during the team’s training camp at Missouri Western State. He just keeps getting better, Toub said the other day, and he’s “far and above everybody else right now.”
So put that all together, and the 25-year-old might be tempted to conflate having finally made it last year with having it made now.
Instead, he approaches every day like the undrafted free agent he was coming out of Fresno State in 2023 — a guy on the outside looking in who finally got called up from the practice squad last December in the wake of Mecole Hardman going on injured reserve.
“Scratching and clawing,” as Remigio put it Friday. And, alas, he best see it that way. Because he’s the embodiment of the legion of legitimate hopefuls vulnerable to the churn of the NFL numbers game.
Imagine being the best at what you do, at least thus far this camp, in a significant role for a perennial Super Bowl contender … and that it might not be good enough to make the team.
No matter how much Toub touts him. Heck, last year Remigio didn’t make the initial 53-man roster even after Toub said he’d be “pounding the table” for him.
This time around, he could find himself left out because he’s an undersized (listed at 5-9) receiver who doesn’t make up for that enough with average speed (around 4.5) — something that he more than overcomes as a returner because of his first burst and feel for the flow.
But the Chiefs seem unlikely to keep seven receivers and he doesn’t figure to be one of the top six in a group that features Rashee Rice, Hollywood Brown, Xavier Worthy, rookie Jalen Royals, JuJu Smith-Schuster and camp standout Tyquan Thornton.
(The timing and length of the presumptive NFL suspension awaiting Rice in the wake of legal resolution to his appalling role in a high-speed crash last year also could factor in that).
And that might mean others who’ll make the team on offense or defense, such as running back Brashard Smith, cornerback Nohl Williams, Royals or Thornton, will get those return jobs … even if they don’t do it as well as Remigio.
So, sure, it’s nice to know Toub will advocate for him and to hear that he perceives Remigio as “far and above everybody else” and all.
But … “I take it with a grain of salt,” Remigio said, smiling. “I think the thing that I’ve learned in this business is that if you get too comfortable you’re going to get got.
“And I worked too damned hard to get to this point of my career … to let it slip through my fingers.”
That helps explain a spectacle on Tuesday during a 2 1/2-hour-plus practice with the heat index exceeding 100.
Many players were laboring. But no one appeared to be suffering more than Remigio, who was nearly doubled over several times as he came off the field and never sought a break.
