Chiefs camp: Meet Ross Travis and notes
By Chris Clark
Sitting at Kansas City Chiefs training camp in St. Joseph, I watched a Chiefs tight end go up for a ball over Marcus Peters and come down with two feet in bounds in the back corner of the end zone.
It was a great play and effort for Travis to come down with both feet in and even a little trash talk to Peters as he got off the ground. Why am I singling out this one play; one of many during camp? The player that made the great catch was a little known second-year man named Ross Travis, not Travis Kelce.
As I traveled up to camp I was thinking about different players I was wanting to see in person and was trying to make sure I could answer as many questions as I could about Tyreek Hill. For those that haven’t seen him, he’s faster than you think and he has continued to show the ability to get open and take hits as well; he could be a really good rookie for KC.
Hill impressed multiple times over two days, but the rookie that kept using his body and his jumping ability to his advantage was Ross Travis. Over the red zone period Travis had multiple plays with the first unit in a three-tight end set. He ended up catching two TD’s in that one red zone drill and the second was another leaping grab in the back of the end zone right in front of the goal post, again getting his feet down before being pushed out.
Travis signed with the Chiefs on Sept. 7, 2015 and spent the entire season on the practice squad. He had a try-out with the Houston Texans in rookie mini-camp that May but was not signed. Travis last played football as freshman in high school and following in the footsteps of Demetrius Harris is now transitioning into a football player. He played four seasons of college basketball for Penn State and he is 6-foot-7 and 235 pounds which is skinny for an NFL tight end.
Ross also has another thing in common with a pretty popular tight end in Chiefs history, he wears # 88 currently but I would imagine that if he ends up making the team he will be wearing a different number during the season. KC has issued 88 mostly in preseason since Gonzalez left outside the couple of seasons that it was worn by Junior Hemmingway. I’m not trying to compare him to Gonzalez, but his athleticism is very impressive and he has a great work ethic as well.
Next: More camp fun...