The NFL season kicks in under one week, as the Baltimore Ravens are set to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, and Andy Reid has clarified the status of Samaje Perine, Juju Smith-Schuster, Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Hollywood Brown. Both Perine and Smith-Schuster are recent additions with Perine being claimed off of waivers from the Denver Broncos and Smith-Schuster signing off the street earlier this week, but they are both acclimated and available to take snaps in needed on Thursday against the Ravens. Unfortunately for Hollywood Brown, the shoulder injury he suffered week one of the preseason will keep him out of week one of the regular season. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was placed on the NFI list and will miss at least the first four games to start the season.

Perine projects to compete for back up running back touches with Carson Steele, but the veteran has a lot of experience in both catching out of the backfield and pass protection. It’s entirely possible Perine carves out a role similar to what Jerick McKinnon used to bring the team ,but don’t count on that right out of the gate. As for Smith-Schuster, his familiarity with the offense is a plus as far as getting him up to speed goes, but still don’t expect his snap counts to be substantial unless the Chiefs receivers get decimated by injuries.

Brown suffered a dislocated sternoclavicular shoulder joint in the Chiefs week one preseason game and was originally slated to miss 4-6 weeks. The Chiefs opening game comes just shy of four weeks from the initial injury so his lack of availability at the moment should come as no surprise. Weeks two and three however become interesting and will be worth monitoring. Luckily for Brown and the Chiefs, they get 10 days to rest up for their week two game. Brown’s absence gives an immediate boost to Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice as both have chemistry already built with Patrick Mahomes and he can lean on both as Xavier Worthy grows and Holloywood Brown works his way back.