Jody Fortson should loom larger given Chiefs injuries

Tight end Jody Fortson could and should become a bigger part of the offense for the Kansas City Chiefs given all of the injuries at wideout.

The next man up hasn’t been the one expected for the Kansas City Chiefs, at least not yet.

At present, the Chiefs have a slew of injuries to treat in the two weeks between the conference championships and the Super Bowl on the NFL’s calendar. During that time, medical staff and athletic trainers will be working on Mecole Hardman, Kadarius Toney, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Justin Watson—to name a few—and of course that doesn’t cover K.C.’s two biggest injury concerns to their offensive pillars.

For the Chiefs, it was a minor miracle that they were able to withstand so many losses on the field to come away victorious in the standings last Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. By game’s end, the Chiefs only had three healthy wide receivers and two of those were rarely used rookie Skyy Moore and special teams vet Marcus Kemp.

One slight surprise in the midst of it all, however, was that the Chiefs didn’t turn to their tight ends more in order to move the chains. In fact, Jody Fortson didn’t receive a single target on the day despite being fresh from injured reserve for the first time in weeks.

The Chiefs have the most talent and perhaps the most depth at tight end in the National Football League. From blocking tight end Blake Bell to the excellent hands of Noah Gray to the red zone mismatches created by Fortson, the Chiefs have talented depth behind Kelce, the single best player at his position.

Back to Sunday. Fortson played on 20 percent of offensive snaps but he couldn’t put anything together. Nor did the team really attempt to create something for Fortson specifically, even though Fortson has the skill set that could have made life difficult for the Bengals. Fortson has always had a disproportional amount of TD catches when compared to his overall catches and catch rate. Given his height and hands, Fortson should be a magnet in traffic.

In addition, it also feels like Chiefs Kingdom has yet to see the best of Fortson. Remember this?

Or when we talk about being a red zone target who can control the chaos:

That’s a young 6’6, 230 lb. target still learning how to best utilize his God-given talents within the Chiefs offense.

While Andy Reid will be hoping to get his wideouts back in time to face the Eagles on February 12 in Glendale, Arizona, perhaps Fortson can be there waiting in the wings as a player ready to step up now that he’s back another week (or two) from IR.