KANSAS CITY http://www.chiefslockerroom.com/authentic-breeland-speaks-jersey , Mo. (AP) — Sammy Watkins told anyone who would listen that he was poised for a resurgent season.The Chiefs wide receiver was healthy for the first time in what seemed like forever. He toiled tirelessly on the practice fields all summer with quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He refined his route-running, protected his body and arrived at Week 1 in better shape than ever.It showed. All of it.The former fourth overall pick of the Buffalo Bills, who for years has underachieved at best and been considered a bust at worst, dominated the touted Jacksonville defense. Watkins hauled nine passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns, pacing the Chiefs to a 40-26 rout in last week’s opener.“I know how to practice now and I know what coach wants out of me,” Watkins said. “So if I come out every day at practice and put the work in, I think hard work and practice lead to great games.“I’ve got to continue to just stack that and move forward to the next game.”The next game comes Sunday in Oakland.The pressure will be on Watkins, too. Not only will he try to replicate his big-play performance against the Jaguars, he’ll be counted on to pick up some slack for injured star Tyreek Hill.Hill fractured his collarbone early on against Jacksonville, and that was a big reason Mahomes kept going back to Watkins all game. But with Hill sidelined for at least a month — and possibly much longer — it falls on the Chiefs’ No. 2 receiver to produce like a No. 1 target.Just as he did last week.“We’ve said it all offseason: Sammy, the way he has prepared his body, the way he’s practiced. He really understands the offense at a different level than he did last year,” Mahomes said.“I mean, the first play that he scored, whatever-yard touchdown that was, he was like the third or fourth read Womens Tanoh Kpassagnon Jersey , he made someone miss and he scored. So, just having a better understanding of the full offense lets him play faster and he can see that the offseason is paying off.”For the record, that was a nifty 68-yard scoring strike in which Watkins made Jaguars star Jalen Ramsey look bad. He later hauled in a 49-yard touchdown strike before adding a short TD catch in the fourth quarter to put the finishing touches on the best game of his career.The yardage was a career best. So was the touchdown total.In fact, you have to go back to Watkins’ days at Clemson to find a similar performance. He caught 16 passes for 227 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Orange Bowl against Ohio State in January 2014, but even in college he never had more than two TD catches in any game.“From the first (catch) on, you saw him break tackles and split seems. There were no indecisions after catches,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.“He’s big, he’s fast and he is strong. We’re moving him all over the place and he is smart, so that helps. I think that combination is what contributed to that (performance). We asked him to play that zebra position and he didn’t blink at that. He said, ‘Put me in and let me go and I will do my thing.’ He plays inside and outside.”In Reid’s offense, the “zebra” plays inside — essentially as a slot receiver. And while that is often considered a less-coveted or important job, Watkins has flourished given chances in it.It helps that he is finally healthy. Watkins has dealt with foot injuries for most of his career, along with a concussion two years ago, bruised ribs, strained groins and a myriad of other maladies.“When he was out there last year he was playing at a very high level. You saw how it positively affected our offense whenever he was out there,” Mahomes said.“Just to have him out there Eric Fisher Jersey , flying around and making plays, I mean, he is someone that seems like he is in great shape. He’s flying around every single rep and doing whatever he can to make sure that he is in the best possible situation.”NOTES: WR Tyreek Hill (broken collarbone) has started rehab in Kansas City after spending a night in a Jacksonville hospital and returning on Monday. “I know there is speculation about how long, but he’s truly a week-to-week injury,” Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said. “He will be listed as out this week.” … Mahomes practiced Wednesday after spraining his ankle against the Jaguars. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was rather animated in the locker room after Kansas City’s 34-30 win on Sunday. If you missed it, catch the video here:As you can see, Reid and the Chiefs were more excited than usual, and yes, the line from Reid that has been making its way around the NFL is sensational.Reid spoke about that post-game enthusiasm on a conference call with the local Kansas City media on Monday. “I got so excited I thought Mozart was an artist,” he laughed. “It was pretty exciting. You don’t want to turn the ball over. You want to capitalize on turnovers, which we talked about and at least we were able to get half of that done and capitalize on turnovers. But, the best part about it... the guys never doubted one another or themselves for whatever case it might be with a turnover. They picked the guys up that had the turnovers and we were able to rally around it. The defense made some stops. The offense made some plays. It worked out OK. There was a good feeling on the sideline, there was an emotional feeling that we were all in and going to take care of business. That’s reassuring for a head coach.”Reid has made a habit over the years of making sure his players appreciate every single victory no matter the opponent. The Lions were home underdogs against Kansas City yet played them extremely tough, and the Chiefs still came out with the win despite fumbling the ball away on three occasions.“I respect the game, I respect that team,” said Reid of Detroit. “I feel like [the Lions] are well coached http://www.chiefslockerroom.com/authentic-jarvis-jenkins-jersey , and they have great players and they’re doing something special up there and they’re working on that. We came in and had some things not go our direction which happens in this league, that’s the human element in this game. To persevere and to keep fighting I think becomes important and it’s emotional. That’s I guess where I was coming from. There’s time here where we can correct the mistakes. “I always come into this saying the guys are the best in the world at what they do, and that’s the whole NFL. It’s a small fraternity of players and coaches. They want to do great, but it’s not always going to be great. That’s just human nature, the way things work and the way the ball bounces. So, for them to continue to fight, not everybody does that. That’s important and our guys did that.” Other items of note from Reid:Reid explained why RB Darrel Williams received time over RB LeSean McCoy toward the end of Sunday’s game: “We have confidence in all those guys. If one guy gets a little tired, we can rotate the other guy in. Obviously, Darrel is a little more familiar with the protections, just having done them all for the time that he has, and they’re different from what LeSean had done in Philly. He’s getting caught up in that area so that’s part of it. Most of it comes down to trying to keep the guys in a rotation and keep them fresh, that’s what we really try to do.”Reid had no news on CB Mo Claiborne, who returns to the club from suspension this week: “I’ll meet with Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) on that. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. We’re still going back through yesterday’s game and working on that with the defense. When I get a minute, I’ll talk to him about it. He’s been working and doing a good job. I’ll have to talk to him and see where he thinks he’s at with that.”