Waived by the Kansas City Chiefs on Aug. 28, former Super Bowl star Kadarius Toney is returning to the NFL with the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns are signing the former Blount High School quarterback for their practice squad, cleveland.com reported on Monday.
In Kansas City’s 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12, 2023, Toney had the longest punt return in Super Bowl history with a 65-yarder to the Philadelphia 5-yard line to set up a touchdown in the fourth quarter less than three minutes after he had caught a TD pass. Toney’s 5-yard touchdown reception with 12:04 remaining allowed Kansas City to take a 28-27 lead, and the advantage expanded to eight points thanks to his punt return.
The Chiefs won the NFL championship again for the 2023 season, but Toney did not contribute during the playoffs this time.
In 2023, Toney had 27 receptions for 169 yards and one touchdown, gained 31 yards on 11 rushing attempts and averaged 9.7 yards on six punt returns. But he did not play in the final three regular-season games or the four playoff contests last season.
Toney was an All-State quarterback at Blount High School in Prichard, and he won the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Class 6A Back of the Year Award for the 2016 season. In his final two seasons at Blount, Toney threw for 6,498 yards and 69 touchdowns and ran for 1,790 yards and 31 touchdowns.
Toney made the conversion to wide receiver at Florida, where he caught 70 passes for 984 yards and 10 touchdowns, ran for 161 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries and returned 11 punts for an average of 12.6 yards and one TD as a senior.
Toney was a first-round draft choice of the New York Giants in 2021. He had played in only 12 games for New York when the Giants traded him to Kansas City on Oct. 27, 2022.
In 32 NFL regular-season games, Toney has 82 receptions for 760 yards and three touchdowns, 21 rushing attempts for 119 yards and one touchdown and 17 punt returns for a 7.0-yard average.
Cleveland opened its season with a 33-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. The Browns play the Jacksonville Jaguars at noon CDT Sunday at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.
Each NFL team can have a 16-member practice squad. Members of the practice squad do everything members of the active roster do, but they are not eligible to play in games. There is an exception: Each team can elevate two practice-squad members to active status for each game.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
