Kansas City Chiefs must wait to see what they have in John Lovett

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid recently said the team would have to wait another month or more to see John Lovett at full strength.

The Kansas City Chiefs are awfully excited about an undrafted player who isn’t even up to full health yet. That’s likely due to the things they’ve already seen John Lovett do even as he continues to return to full strength.

On Monday, Andy Reid spoke to reporters about the team’s recently complete rookie minicamp and made quick mention of Lovett, a rookie free agent who is making waves even as he continues to heal from an injured wrist. The former Princeton quarterback is an exciting Swiss army knife of a prospect who Reid said he had to slow down at minicamp:

"He’s still got a banged up wrist so he can’t do contact on the wrist, but it’s healing and he has about another month or so to go with that. Extremely smart and we had to kind of tame him down a little bit. For a quarterback I said, ‘you are a wild man. You have to calm down here just a little bit’. He did a good job."

Lovett is a Princeton product who showed off an incredible ability to do many things well on his way to winning Ivy League Player of the Year. Lovett was the Tigers’ quarterback and completed 146 of 221 passes for 1,833 passing yards, 18 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Lovett also ran for another 894 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns to the tune of 6.3 yards/carry.

Yet that’s not all. In previous seasons when he was not yet the starting quarterback, he’d beg for any chance at all to get onto the field. He had 20 rushing touchdowns in 2016 and also caught 26 passes that same year for 235 yards and 1 more touchdown. He’s even served as the team’s long snapper (his college coach said he was the best they had) and even returned a couple punts. He was Wildcat quarterback, slot receiver, halfback, and coaches wanted to put him through linebacker drills at his pro day.

General manager Brett Veach said the Chiefs had to fight off other teams for the chance to bring in Lovett into minicamp and it’s clear he did not disappoint. Reid clearly likes what he’s seen early on and he’s not even healthy yet. Lovett broke his wrist last season but missed only a single game. A surgery for a clean-up procedure in February led to him still wearing a cast for his pro day, but he still caught 29 of 30 passes with one hand.

In short, Lovett is a sort of undrafted legend at this point, a natural leader who is willing to do anything and everything to contribute to the cause. It turns out he might actually have the athletic ability it takes to make it happen. For a head coach who loves to create mismatches, Lovett could be a very interesting wrinkle in the offense once he’s healthy and acclimated to the role. Shortly after the draft, Reid said:

"“Lovett’s a guy that can play a lot of different spots for you,” Reid said. “He’s not as big as a normal tight end. You’re talking about 233 pounds, so he’s not going to be your grinder in there, but he can play in the backfield, he can play quarterback and he can play in that Wing tight end position.”"

It sounds like the Chiefs already have a plan for Lovett in place. This should be fun to watch.