In Kadarius Toney’s previous game for the Kansas City Chiefs, the former Blount High School standout had a touchdown reception and the longest punt return in Super Bowl history in a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL championship game for the 2022 season.

But during Kansas City’s first practice of training camp on July 23, Toney suffered what coach Andy Reid described as a partially torn meniscus, and the wide receiver had knee surgery two days later.

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Toney is back at practice this week as the Chiefs prepare for the NFL’s season-opening game on Thursday night, and Kansas City hopes to have him on the field against the Detroit Lions.

“Right now, he’s good to go,” Reid said on Sunday. “He’s moving around pretty good.”

In Super Bowl LVII, Toney caught a 5-yard touchdown pass as the Chiefs took a 28-27 lead with 12:04 to play.

Toney followed the score with a 65-yard punt return to the Eagles 5-yard line. The return set up quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ 4-yard touchdown toss to wide receiver Skyy Moore as the Chiefs took a 35-27 lead with 9:22 to play.

“The talent that he has, the competitor that he is, to be able to go out there and have that weapon, it would definitely be a huge positive,” Mahomes said about Toney’s availability on Thursday night. “He’s definitely done a great job in the practices that he’s been in so far, and I’m looking forward to him continuing to step up and be even better and be more like his normal self, which, honestly, going out there the first few days and seeing him, he looks like KT, so I’m excited for that. He put a lot of time into that rehab process so that he can get himself ready, hopefully, to play in this first week.”

JuJu Smith-Schuster, Kansas City’s leading receiver last season, left in free agency for the New England Patriots in March. The Chiefs kept seven wide receivers on their 53-player regular-season roster, including two former Alabama high school stars – Toney and Justyn Ross from Central-Phenix City.

“For us, I think he’s looked really good coming back here,” Kansas City offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said about Toney on Monday. “He looks like he’s in shape, and he has stayed locked in with the playbook, so now we’ll just let the flow of the game dictate how we use him and what we do with him.”

In his third NFL season, Toney is preparing for his first opening game with the Chiefs.

After joining the Giants as the 20th selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, Toney played in 12 of New York’s next 24 games. Toney had 41 receptions for 420 yards, five runs for 29 yards and one punt return for zero yards when the Giants gave up on Toney’s injury-riddled career and traded him to Kansas City on Oct. 27, 2022.

In seven regular-season and three playoff games with Kansas City, Toney had 21 receptions for 221 yards and three touchdowns, six runs for 73 yards and one touchdown and 16 punt returns for 173 yards.

The Chiefs and Lions will square off at 7:20 p.m. CDT Thursday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. NBC will televise the game.

Toney played quarterback at Blount. In his final two seasons with the Leopards, 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. After catching 50 passes for 606 yards and two touchdowns in his first three seasons with the Gators, Toney had 70 receptions for 984 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2020.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.