KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Two weeks of offseason practice without Jeremy Maclin left the Kansas City Chiefs in the same place with regard to their receivers that they were on the day their most accomplished player at the position was released.

They're hopeful their current cast of receivers can get the job done. But they're counting heavily on players who are young and inexperienced, so they're still unsure.

"We're going to be OK," coach Andy Reid said. "I'm happy with the improvement that they've made over this camp and even last year. Do we have work to do? Absolutely. We've got to get this training camp in. We've got to put the pads on and do it there.

"But for that to take place, we've got to have confidence in the guys we have here. We've got to keep working, though. We've got a ways to go."

Since releasing Maclin, 29, the Chiefs have no receiver older than 24. Every other team in the NFL will go to training camp with a receiver who's at least 26.

Without Maclin, Chiefs wide receivers have 251 career NFL catches, led by Albert Wilson with 82. Their total is slightly more than half of Maclin's 474 career receptions. Only the wide receivers for the New York Jets will enter the season with fewer all-time catches.

The Chiefs won't have a first-round draft pick among their wide receivers for the first time in a decade. Among the six wideouts who figure to make the team, only Chris Conley was drafted as high as the third round. De'Anthony Thomas, Demarcus Robinson and Jehu Chesson were fourth-round picks, and Tyreek Hill was picked in the fifth round. Wilson was undrafted.

So there's plenty of mystery here. The one receiver the Chiefs can count on is Hill, who scored 12 touchdowns in a spectacular rookie season last year. He will take Maclin's spot in the starting lineup, though between lining up occasionally as a running back and his duties as a punt returner, he won't be available as a wideout for every offensive snap.

For the Maclin release to work in the Chiefs' favor, they have to get more production than in the past from some of their other receivers and not just Hill. Conley, the other starter, is the most likely candidate.

But Conley dropped 4.5 percent of his passes last season, a higher percentage than any of Kansas City's other main receivers. Conley was also targeted on just 12.9 percent of the pass routes he ran, a lower percentage than all but one of the other 13 receivers who caught at least one pass last season. So he evidently wasn't doing well enough in getting open.

Wilson and Thomas are the only other receivers who have caught a pass in an NFL game. Wilson, with his 82 career catches and four touchdowns, has had some shining moments. Thomas hasn't played a lot but hasn't provided much even when he has.

The Chiefs also have expectations for Robinson, who played only five snaps as a rookie last season. But his development in the offseason was one reason the Chiefs felt comfortable in releasing Maclin.

Chesson, a fourth-round pick this year, will also probably make the regular-season roster, though he may be inactive on game days.

Those are the six probable receivers, though injuries could leave an opening for someone else. The most likely candidate is Seantavius Jones, a 6-3, 200-pound receiver who spent time on the practice squad last year.

"We have a lot of trust in the guys we have here. They have worked their tail off, some of them for this opportunity [and] they're going to get a little more playing time. We have full trust that they're going to get the job done."