In the moments that Skyy Moore has been targeted, he's made some nice plays but apparently not enough to warrant more snaps or targets on offense.
The Kansas City Chiefs have enjoyed a rather impactful rookie draft class in 2022 and have gotten solid contributions at several key positions from their youth investments. It was always important that the Chiefs get the most out of their 2022 draft class because of the amount of talent they lost when they traded wide receiver Tyreek Hill in the offseason.
If the Chiefs still wanted to contend (they do) while also getting younger and creating more financial flexibility they had to get this draft right. For the most part, it looks as if the Chiefs delivered on that.
However, the class isn't perfect, and to be clear, expecting a perfect class is unreasonable. Nonetheless, if you had to pick a rookie that has been a flat-out disappointment this year for the Kansas City Chiefs it has to be wide receiver Skyy Moore. Through 9 games, Moore has just 7 catches for 109 yards which seems like a stat line from a single game.
Wide Receiver was a position that the Chiefs definitely needed to revamp last offseason especially after they made the decision to trade Hill so there was a fair amount of expectation put on Moore. Despite the acquisitions of JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in free agency, which have been great, getting some extra juice from Moore who was their highest pick outside of the first round would have been ideal. Instead, we haven't seen much. After 9 weeks and little to no impact is it time to be worried?
It's a well-known fact that it takes a receiver a long time to get integrated into the Andy Reid offense. At the same time, people tend to overstate how long that really takes until it just becomes an excuse for an underperforming player. Some would push back on the take that Moore has underperformed because it's not exactly like he's been bad, but he hasn't done anything either and doesn't see the field all that much. Why? It's tough to say.
In the moments that Moore has been targeted, he's made some nice plays but apparently not enough to warrant more snaps or targets on offense. Does he lack Mahomes' trust? Reid's? Those are some potential factors.
Usually, by now we've seen flashes that tell you a player is going to be good, though. It happened with Tyreek Hill and it happened with Mecole Hardman. They'd have huge games that showed off what they could be. We haven't really seen that with Moore. It's also very rare that a receiver does next to nothing in year one and then becomes a star in year two. Again, usually, there are signs by now.
The biggest reason to be concerned with Moore, however, is the fact that new wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who got here two weeks ago, has come in and done what Moore's done all season in two games. He just walked into the building and started producing. Of course, Moore is a rookie, but he still was here for all of training camp and the offseason and has had plenty of time to pick up the offense. No matter how talented Toney is it's not a good look for Moore that he's immediately ahead of him in the offense's pecking order.
Lastly, the Chiefs' wide receiver group is decent, but it could definitely use someone stepping up at times. In other words, it's not elite and Moore should be able to eat into someone's snaps especially when the rest of the team's receivers struggle to get open against man coverage. Moore should still be carving out a role.
At this point, you can only hope Moore has a second-half surge sort of like Amon-Ra St.Brown of the Detroit Lions last year. Sometimes it does take guys a little bit of time and we definitely don't want to rule that out with Moore, but as of right now we have more reasons to be concerned than encouraged.