Five Chiefs who have gone missing in the preseason
By Matt Conner
Izaiah Gathings
Tell us if this sounds familiar: a longshot wide receiver from an uncommon school is given a chance to rebuild himself as a tight end and potential red zone target. Yeah, the Chiefs might have another such project in the pipeline.
Izaiah Gathings is yet another prospect out of Middle Tennessee State, a school that has been quite kind to the Chiefs in the last few years (Richie James, Darius Harris, Charvarius Ward). This time, it's an offensive addition in the form of wide receiver Izaiah Gathings.
Gathings is a 6'4" target who played around 220 lbs. for the Blue Raiders a year ago and came up with 60 catches for 559 yards and 2 touchdowns. The New York Jets won the bidding for his services afer the NFL Draft, but they then released him shortly before training camp was set to open. The Chiefs struck a deal and have been watching him ever since.
So far in camp there has been very little said about Gathings, but it's also true that tight end is a loaded position. Even with Jody Fortson lost for the year, Noah Gray and Blake Bell are locking up the other positions on the roster besides Travis Kelce as the starter. From there, Matt Bushman has made a strong preseason push for more time and Kendall Blanton is also a known quantity.
At this stage, Gathings is certainly not safe even for a practice squad job, and he can only hope the Chiefs want to see this project through that they've started this summer.