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Kansas City Chiefs: Pre-training camp 53-man roster prediction

By Lyle Graversen

ST JOSEPH, MISSOURI - JULY 30: Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes #15, Anthony Gordon #8 and Shane Buechele #6 of the Kansas City Chiefs look on during drills at training camp at Missouri Western State University on July 30, 2021 in St Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
ST JOSEPH, MISSOURI - JULY 30: Quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes #15, Anthony Gordon #8 and Shane Buechele #6 of the Kansas City Chiefs look on during drills at training camp at Missouri Western State University on July 30, 2021 in St Joseph, Missouri. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Wide receiver Mecole Hardman #17 of the Kansas City Chiefs . (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images)
Wide receiver Mecole Hardman #17 of the Kansas City Chiefs . (Photo by David Eulitt/Getty Images) /

Wide Receivers (5)

  1. JuJu Smith-Schuster
  2. Marquez Valdes-Scantling
  3. Mecole Hardman
  4. Skyy Moore
  5. Justin Watson

Tight Ends (4)

  1. Travis Kelce
  2. Blake Bell
  3. Jody Fortson
  4. Noah Gray

If you look at many 53-man roster projections for the Chiefs it seems like most of them have the Chiefs keeping six wide receivers. In the end, my decision to keep four running backs and four tight ends made that impossible for me to do. I won’t be shocked if it happens, but in the end, I liked Pacheco and Gray more than I liked guys like Josh Gordon, Cornell Powell, and Daurice Fountain. I

‘m not completely ruling out Justyn Ross making this roster, but I agree with others who have suggested that KC may find a way to stash him on IR this season. The reason I have Watson making it as the 5th receiver is that he has special teams experience and I think that final wideout spot is all about special teams. I think almost 100% of KC’s wide receiver snaps this season will be from the top four guys on the list (assuming they stay healthy).

As far as the tight ends go, I think Travis Kelce, Blake Bell, and Jody Fortson are locks. Every year there seems to be a lot of Chiefs fans that want them to move on from Bell in favor of guys with more offensive upside, but the team needs someone to fill the role as a blocking first tight end and that spot belongs to Bell. Period. Fortson has flashed way more offensive upside than Gray so far so if K.C. decides to just keep three tight ends this year I think Gray could be in trouble. I also wouldn’t completely rule out Matt Bushman (who I liked coming out of BYU) beating out Gray either.

Now let’s look at the offensive line.

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