Kansas City Chiefs draft wish list: Noah Fant, tight end, Iowa
By Grant Tuttle
FIT WITH CHIEFS
Andy Reid has used multiple tight end sets at several points of his career. When Alex Smith was the quarterback, Reid liked to incorporate Demetrius Harris, Travis Kelce and Anthony Fasano. This was likely due to the lack of solid wide receivers on the outside. That being said, Travis Kelce is not getting any younger and Demetrius Harris has been underwhelming. The case for a tight end makes more sense than one may realize.
Kelce’s current contract with the Chiefs expires after the 2021 season. At that point, Kelce will be 32 years old. It seems unlikely that he would want to go somewhere else for the end of his career and it seems even less likely that someone will want to pay a lot of money to 32-year-old tight end. Even if the Chiefs were to draft Fant, that doesn’t mean the end of Kelce. Take a look at the Philadelphia Eagles who are coached by Reid disciple Doug Pederson.
The Eagles have implemented a lot of two tight end sets that create mismatches across the board. Obviously, Zach Ertz is one of the league’s best tight ends, Pro Football Focus gave Ertz their eighth best tight end grade for 2018-2019. He was not the only Eagles tight end in PFF’s top ten graded tight ends. Dallas Goedert also came in at number nine on the list. Ertz, like Kelce, is under contract through 2021. Who’s to say that you can’t have two great tight ends?
If the Chiefs have Sammy Watkins, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce and Noah Fant, that is easily the scariest receiving unit in football. This would also allow the Chiefs to leave one tight end inside, while they send one player out to the slot. A two tight end system would give Patrick Mahomes great security blankets in the middle of the field.