There was plenty of buzz around Jared Wiley when the Kansas City Chiefs selected him in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Wiley was viewed as a strong receiving tight end, and with Travis Kelce nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, there was real hope that Wiley could develop into a large part of Kansas City’s post-Kelce future at the position. Unfortunately for Wiley and the Chiefs, that hope is quickly disappearing after his first two seasons in Kansas City.
Wiley was slow to develop in college as well (which isn’t always an encouraging sign for NFL success), but he had a breakout season as a fifth-year senior at TCU, hauling in 47 receptions for 520 yards and an impressive eight touchdown receptions. While Wiley was viewed as a great blocker, his route running, hands, and red-zone success had many draft experts believing that Wiley could have a future in the league as a pass-catching tight end.
Wiley’s rookie season was pretty quiet. With Travis Kelce still playing over 80 percent of the snaps and Noah Gray established as the clear No. 2 tight end, Wiley logged only 94 snaps through seven games before suffering a torn ACL in his left knee on November 1, 2024. He finished his rookie year with just one reception for seven yards. While it wasn’t a noteworthy rookie season, the Chiefs weren’t expecting him to contribute much as a rookie, and there wasn’t any reason to doubt that he would return to full health after the injury.
After two seasons in Kansas City, there is growing concern that Jared Wiley may never break through in the NFL.
Despite his ACL injury happening in the second half of the season, Wiley was cleared to participate in training camp and played in all three of the Chiefs’ preseason games in 2025. It is often reported that it takes a player a full year to regain full explosiveness, so it is possible that Wiley wasn’t quite back to 100 percent despite being cleared for the entire season.
Being available after his injury wasn’t enough for the Chiefs to give Wiley much of a shot in 2025. After appearing in seven games and totaling 94 offensive snaps in his rookie season before getting hurt, he appeared in just five games and played only 28 offensive snaps. Again, his production was almost nonexistent, with just one reception for four yards. So if you’re keeping track at home, that’s just two receptions in two seasons for Wiley.
The really discouraging part is that he wasn’t kept off the field last season because Noah Gray was highly productive as Kansas City’s No. 2 tight end. While Gray is a solid blocker, his production dropped off last season, and there is now real reason to doubt whether he can be the heir to Kelce at the tight end position. Despite that, the Chiefs didn’t even try to get Wiley on the field to see if he could be more productive. In fact, he was out-snapped 133–28 by journeyman tight end Robert Tonyan, who clearly outplayed him in training camp and the preseason.
If you wanted to make excuses for Wiley, you could argue that he’s better suited to play Kansas City’s top tight end spot, which is primarily a pass-catching role, than the No. 2 tight end spot that requires much more blocking and dirty work. So perhaps the combination of trying to get his knee back to 100 percent and Kelce staying healthy and playing so many snaps was the perfect storm that kept him off the field. Still, it remains true that Wiley simply hasn’t proven anything through two NFL seasons.
It’s not unheard of for tight ends to be slow to develop. Dalton Schultz and Juwan Johnson were both in the top 10 in tight end production this past season, and Schultz had a combined 13 receptions through his first two seasons, while Johnson had just 17 combined catches through his first two years. Wiley is under contract at a very affordable cap number for the next two seasons, so if the Chiefs still have any faith in him as a player, it would be easy to keep him around. But if he can’t even crack Kansas City’s top three tight ends in training camp this season, his roster spot may be in jeopardy.
The Chiefs could look to draft their long-term Kelce replacement in the 2026 draft. A highly touted prospect like Kenyon Sadiq would definitely upgrade the upside at the position, but they could also target a developmental option like Max Klare. If Travis Kelce comes back for one more season and the Chiefs invest any draft pick or even free-agent dollars at the tight end position this offseason, it could be the end of Wiley’s time in Kansas City. His bust status isn’t set in stone, but his first two seasons have certainly pointed in that direction.