Chiefs roster battle behind Travis Kelce was much ado about nothing

It turns out the roster battle for spots behind Travis Kelce was all for nothing.

Throughout the offseason, one of the key roster battles that seemed to be up for grabs for the Kansas City Chiefs came at tight end, at the spots directly behind perennial Pro Bowler Travis Kelce. Certainly the starter’s job wasn’t in jeopardy, but every slot behind Kelce was up for grabs and the offensive potential involved seemed interesting.

Fast forward at least two weeks into the regular season and any attention paid at all to the position(s) feels like too much. No tight end has received a single target other than Kelce, and the players believed to be the primary contenders for the role haven’t even played a single snap—despite being healthy.

Two games is a small sample size, and the narrative on all of this is easily changed, but it’s interesting to look back and see the hopes or desires placed on the signing of Ricky Seals-Jones to a one-year contract. Coming into this year, Seals-Jones had averaged 20 catches for 257 yards and just under 3 touchdowns. However, he’d also shown considerable improvement in his catch rate just last season with the Browns.

With the presence of Deon Yelder for another year in the offense and Seals-Jones as the new import, the promise of another pass-catching tight end on the roster was intriguing. Whether Seals-Jones was going to provide another red zone target or Yelder was going to grow into the role, it felt like an exciting offensive wrinkle was added.

Little did anyone know that every facet of those hopes would misplaced. First, Nick Keizer, a practice squad carryover from 2019 signed away from the Baltimore Ravens ended up winning the role of TE2 over everyone else. Even then, Mahomes hasn’t looked at Keizer even once for a pass.

All of this could change, of course. A breakout game for Keizer, an active game for Yelder, a promotion from Seals-Jones—any of them are possible and could erase this conversation entirely. However, at this point it’s interesting to note that the Chiefs are already overwhelmed with enough mouths to feed and that all the interest given in the competition behind Kelce was basically much ado about nothing.