It's understandable why Jared Wiley wasn't a talking point after Monday Night Football in Week 1. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end didn't even play in the game as one of a handful of inactives for the contest against the Denver Broncos. And in the ensuing excitement of a 21-point victory, it'd be weird if the conversation had included Wiley in any way.
Several days later, it makes sense to ask questions about Wiley and his status with the team.
Wiley looked like he enjoyed a strong preseason, along with others at the position, earning praise from head coach Andy Reid. Wiley himself spoke about his growth after dealing with an injury and having his development slowed. "We'll watch last year's preseason, or I'll go back and watch camp from last year, and I'm like, 'God, that looked terrible, dude.' Like it was awful. So I'm definitely feeling like myself again," he said this summer.
Jake Briningstool gets the first crack at TE3
When push came to shove, however, it was Jake Briningstool who was active as the Chiefs' TE3, occupying the slot behind Travis Kelce and Noah Gray. It was a minor surprise shortly before kickoff against the Broncos, and if that same thing happens again before hosting Indianapolis, then the question becomes a bit more pronounced.
The surprise is not in Briningstool's emergence. The former rookie free agent signing from 2025 was a spring sensation a year ago, but a preseason injury robbed him of a real chance to show off in exhibitions. The Chiefs stashed him away on injured reserve for a year, and Briningstool also had a productive summer alongside Wiley. The overall feeling was positive in that the Chiefs didn't even feel a need to add any outsiders to the mix, knowing they had such promise already on the roster.
But the fourth-round investment (2024) in Wiley made him seem like the obvious candidate to serve as the team's third tight end, all things considered. After an injury cut short his rookie campaign as well (there's a real theme here, which includes Kelce, too), Wiley returned in '25 to play in five games but received scant playing time. Through two years, he's been targeted only twice, but Wiley explained this summer that the injury was still affecting him a year later.
When fully healthy, Wiley looked ready for more playing time for the Chiefs this summer and his draft pedigree makes his ceiling an interesting consideration. But Briningstool was the one playing 19 percent of snaps against the Broncos. There's not a lot left over for anyone, given the organization's reliance on Kelce and Gray, but these snaps count, and Briningstool is getting them.
The Chiefs have more at stake than a TE3 competition
All of this is important for two reasons. First, the skill sets at tight end are rather redundant for the Chiefs in the first place. No one involved, even at the top, is all that great at blocking, and the Chiefs, in an ideal world, would have a more varied tight end room in terms of skills than they have at the present time. When Tre Watson was released and signed with the Miami Dolphins' practice squad, the team lost its best blocker.
That becomes a factor because, second, there's a real opportunity window open this season to audition for a post-Kelce offense. If this is, indeed, Kelce's swan song, with Gray also scheduled to hit free agency next March, then the Chiefs are suddenly searching for multiple answers at a position without an obvious answer. Both Briningstool and Wiley are under contract for '27, so both might prove useful, but this is the year to stake a claim.
Jared Wiley could eventually face a roster squeeze
The Chiefs like Wiley enough to keep him on the active roster at this point, not a bad move considering Kelce's age and the overall utility of more TEs in a league shifting toward heavier personnel. But if Briningstool settles in as TE3 for several weeks, Wiley could actually look a bit more expendable near the trade deadline, knowing he's moving into a contract year himself next spring while Briningstool has three seasons left on his cheaper deal.
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