Chiefs 2023 53-Man Roster Prediction: Tight Ends

Embed from Getty Images
The Kansas City Chiefs enter 2023 with a handful of spots up for grabs. Once again, wide receiver will be fascinating to watch, in terms of who steps up and produces consistently. Kansas City will also have many opportunities for a defensive line that is extremely young, overall.

Every team has just one cut day this year. NFL squads will be down to 53 players by Tuesday, August 29th. In just under two weeks, we will officially know who ends up making the Chiefs roster for 2023. In the meantime, we are going to do our best to try and predict who makes the cut, going position by position.

So far, we have listed quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers. Next up, we move on to the tight ends. Truthfully, there are not a lot of difficult decisions to make at this spot. It is even clearer now, following an unfortunate injury. Let’s kick it off.

Tight Ends currently on the roster: Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Blake Bell, Matt Bushman, Kendall Blanton, Izaiah Gathings

Historic Run

Travis Kelce is entering his eleventh career season. After missing most of his rookie year due to injury, he has been on a historic run for a tight end over most of the last decade. Kelce has produced at least 1,000 receiving yards in seven consecutive seasons. That is a current NFL record that he is hoping to extend once again in 2023. Meanwhile, no other tight end has had seven 1,000-yard receiving seasons in an entire career. As for his career receiving touchdowns, Kelce is currently sixth all-time for tight ends, with 69 receiving touchdowns. He needs just six more receiving touchdowns to pass Jason Witten for fifth place on the all-time list.

It is unbelievable how smooth and refined Kelce has remained throughout his career. His ability to shake defenders with his elite route running and separation skills are one thing. Yet, there may be no smarter pass catcher at the tight end position. His feel for leverage, finding the soft spots in coverage and timing for adjusted breaks in the route are seemingly always on time.

Taking Another Step

Embed from Getty Images
Noah Gray may not have been a consistent star for the Chiefs offense last year. However, his jump from year one to year two was a tremendous asset to have for Kansas City’s offensive attack. The use of multiple tight end sets truly created some confusion and headaches for opposing defenses. And in 2022, Gray displayed both contested catch ability and a solid feel for creating necessary separation.

For the first time in ages, there is no fullback on the Chiefs roster. Perhaps, Gray will be utilized as a pseudo fullback at times this year. Either way, this is a dependable TE2 to have on your depth chart. He can make catches both down the field and in tight areas. He can block with immense force to open up running lanes. Finally, Gray offers a beneficial all-around skill set to complement the play style of Kelce perfectly.

Final Decisions

As mentioned above, it is much clearer for the final decisions at tight end, due to an unfortunate injury. Jody Fortson suffered a dislocated shoulder early in training camp. After missing a total of 12 training camp practices, Kansas City placed Fortson on injured reserve, which officially ends his season. The team announced that he would be undergoing shoulder surgery this week. This is yet another injury that Fortson is going to have to deal with throughout the early portion of his career.

Entering training camp, I was a little more unsure about Blake Bell making the roster, compared to past years. The Fortson injury basically locks up his spot, though. He had also continued to receive numerous reps with the starting offense in training camp before Fortson was officially placed on IR, to boot. Kansas City will gladly utilize his blocking ability and experience when running what the Chiefs quarterback sneak has become.

Matt Bushman could make a push to make the roster. He had a strong showing in last year’s preseason and the first preseason game this year. Nevertheless, it may be challenging to still keep four tight ends after the Fortson injury. That is especially true, given the tight position battles in other spots too.

PROJECTED FINAL DEPTH CHART:

TE1: Kelce

TE2: Gray

TE3: Bell

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs 53-man roster prediction articles throughout the coming days. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.