Former Chiefs tight end lands with New York Giants

The New York Giants have a pretty significant void at tight end after releasing Kyle Rudolph and watching Evan Engram leave in free agency. Now they’re leaning on a former Kansas City Chiefs tight end to make up some of that production with the signing of journeyman Ricky Seals-Jones.

The Giants came to terms with Seals-Jones on Wednesday as the new league year opened the door for free agency.

Seals-Jones was always such an odd offensive anomaly in Kansas City given that he’d showed solid hands and production in other places around the NFL. Before arriving in Kansas City, Seals-Jones had averaged 20 catches and 258 yards per season as a lower-tier target within offenses. His signing for the 2020 season made fans believe Travis Kelce might get a bigger break at times or that head coach Andy Reid might choose to utilize two tight end sets more.

Former Kansas City Chiefs tight end Ricky Seals-Jones has found a new place to land in New York.

Instead, Seals-Jones had to be quite frustrated during his single season in K.C. While he at least got to experience a Super Bowl chase and appearance, the team gave any additional targets to Deon Yelder and Nick Keizer and even those were limited—both of them combined had 13 catches for 99 yards. As for Seals-Jones, he failed to catch the one target thrown his way that year for a solid zero across all categories after a long season largely spent on the practice squad

Fortunately, the Washington Football Team came calling last May and gave him a chance at some more production. He rewarded them with 30 catches for 271 yards and 2 touchdowns, although a 5.5 yards/target average isn’t anything to hold up. Then again, the Washington offense wasn’t great last season and the Giants aren’t making any crazy demands here.

In short, Seals-Jones will be a veteran to likely watch over a potential draft pick given the heightened need here for New York and maybe it gives him a chance for another dozen catches or so.