Chiefs position battle: Tight end is anyone’s guess behind Travis Kelce
By Matt Conner
Deon Yelder
Every team takes chances on the sort of late bloomer label that would apply to the likes of Deon Yelder. The former Western Kentucky tight end was a basketball player who decided to play football late in his high school career and ended up walking on the football team for the Hilltoppers in college.
It was a single collegiate season for Yelder, one in which he earned third-team All-Conference USA honors as a senior, that turned heads enough to warrant the New Orleans Saints signing him to a rookie free agent deal after the 2018 NFL Draft. While he failed to make the team’s active roster, the Chiefs liked him enough to sign him and even stash him on the roster so that teams couldn’t poach him from the practice squad.
In 2018 for the Chiefs, Yelder made his pro football debut by playing some special teams snaps but mostly he was inactive so the team could protect for the long-term. In 2019, Yelder earned more playing time behind Kelce and Bell. He caught 3 of 4 targets from Patrick Mahomes for 50 yards.
Moving forward, Yelder’s best opportunity is in front of him as his experience now gives him a real chance to earn reps behind Kelce. Unfortunately, he’s been sidelined by a groin injury that has allowed other competitors to turn heads in the preseason instead. Yelder’s breakthrough season has been blindsided by a pandemic that won’t allow him to show how far he’s developed and others might be catching up.
The Chiefs kept Yelder around for the 2020 by extending him a qualifying offer back in the spring. The Chiefs have added a couple other names, but failed to import anyone who could obviously knock Yelder back down or even off the depth chart. Instead, he’s going to have to hope the Chiefs keep the long view in mind here and rely on previous projections since he’s been unable to showcase much in padded practices.
Odds to make the team: Very good