Patrick Mahomes is standing behind Kadarius Toney after the wide receiver cost the Chiefs a potentially game-winning touchdown on Sunday Night Football against the Buffalo Bills.
The Chiefs star QB told reporters that he kept the message for Toney simple during the team’s first practice since the loss.
“Just be you,” Mahomes said he told Toney. “That’s all you can do in life or in this league. You’re going to make mistakes. Stuff’s going to happen in your life. How do you accept that adversity and get past it and do it the right way?
“You make one mistake, that’s not going to define you. It’s going to be how you respond to that mistake.”
Toney has 25 receptions for 164 yards this season and one touchdown.
While his numbers don’t jump off the page, none of the Chiefs receivers have played spectacularly well and currently led the league in dropped passes this season with 29.
Head coach Andy Reid has said that Toney would remain in the lineup, but did say that the biggest takeaway from the whole thing was that Toney needs to make sure he checks with the official to make sure he’s lined up correctly.
An offensive offside called on Toney negated what would have been a go-ahead score and a spectacular touchdown play late in the game against the Bills.
Mahomes, who went ballistic on the sideline after the flag, completed a pass to Travis Kelce, who lateraled the ball to Toney to run it into the end zone for a touchdown.
But the officials called the play back after Toney clearly lined up in the neutral zone.
The call led to quite a bit of controversy, leading NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to make a joke at the NFL’s winter meetings in Dallas on Wednesday.
“I find it ironic that I’m answering a question about the officials getting it right and they’re getting criticized,” Goodell said, according to USA Today.