Speedy free agent options for the Kansas City Chiefs offense

2. Phillip Dorsett

Speaking of track stars, Phillip Dorsett is yet another wide receiver with a nice background in track and field. As a sprinter and long jumper, Dorsett turned heads with his top-tier speed in multiple sports with a second place finish in the 100m and third place finish in the 200m in high school during Florida’s state meet in 2011.

From there, Dorsett took his football and track talents to Miami where he eventually developed into a first-round talent thanks to the belief of the Indianapolis Colts in his talents. He was never a primary target for the Hurricanes, but the way he stretched the field had NFL teams salivating over his potential after a final season in Miami with 871 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns on only 36 catches.

Unfortunately for Dorsett, the Colts quickly gave up on trying to form Dorsett into a downfield complement for T.Y. Hilton. Dorsett made the leap from 225 receiving yards on 18 catches during his rookie season to 528 receiving yards on 33 catches in his second season. He cut his fumbles from 2 to 1 and improved every metric including yards/route, catch rate and more. Still the Colts traded him to New England for quarterback Jacoby Brissett.

In New England, Dorsett was largely buried on the depth chart as a rarely used target over the last three seasons. Instead of turning the corner as a former first round pick, Dorsett averaged 24 catches (38 targets), 293 receiving yards, and 2.7 touchdowns per year with the Patriots.

Now, Dorsett is hitting free agency once again after re-signing a one-year, $2.6 million contract with the Patriots. At the time, it felt like a nice low-risk, high-reward signing for the Pats and a chance for Dorsett to further prove himself in a familiar place that knew him. Instead one year later, the same picture remains in place.

Dorsett made nice gains statistically speaking with an increased workload on a decimated wide receiving corps for the Pats (a career-high 5 scores, for one), but the catch rate was an abysmal 53.7 percent, the worst since his rookie campaign in Indy.

The Chiefs wouldn’t be asking Dorsett to be a high-level target at all. However, he’s a player who ran a 4.33 second time at the NFL Combine in the 40-yard dash, who also happens to have stellar acceleration. If deployed or utilized in the right way in combination with his teammates, Dorsett’s skill set could really be something to watch.