Inside Kadarius Toneys year in NFL exile with once-promising career possibly over at 26

After poor play and legal troubles, Kadarius Toney has been exiled from the NFL for over a year now.The frustrating but talented 2021 first-round draft pick has been off the football field since being waived by the Browns last December after two disastrous punt returns during a game against the Steelers, adding a long list of on-field blunders. Toney’s unremarkable stint in Cleveland came after the Chiefs, who acquired him from the Giants after he spent only a season-and-a-half in New York, dumped him before their season opener in 2024.That wasn’t rock bottom for Toney. In February, Toney was arrested for allegedly putting his hand around a woman’s throat during a January dispute.Court documents viewed by The Post at the time alleged that Toney squeezed the woman’s neck “with enough force to cause her to be unable to breathe, leave red marks on her neck and cause Petechial Hemorrhaging in her eyes” during a Jan.14 incident in Douglasville, Georgia.A couple of months later, Toney pushed back on retirement rumors, taking to social media to refute those online claims that he had said during an Instagram Live that he would be quitting football and wanted to be viewed as a rapper.“Goofies on the net hollerin I’m retiring,” Toney wrote on his Instagram story in mid-April.

“Just want klout.Ain’t speakin on the [poop emoji] nomo.”However, his actions since then, and the apparent disinterest from NFL teams – Toney never so much as worked out with a team this fall, missing the entire season – suggest is at least on an extended hold.

Although Toney has been making music since at least 2019, releasing EPs and singles under the name Yung Joka, his rap career appears to have taken on a more serious tone of late with his first full album. In October, Toney released “Warrior4Lyfe,” a ten-track album with heavy autobiographical tones, focusing on his personal past. A peek at his Instagram makes it hard to tell he was ever a football player at al...