The Kansas City Chiefs will have many key roster decisions to make in the next month and a half. One of those positions worth monitoring is tight end. Of course, superstar Travis Kelce is atop the depth chart at tight end, entering his 13th career season. However, the depth behind him and Noah Gray is seemingly up for grabs entering the 2025 season.
Jake Briningstool is an intriguing name in the tight end battle as a rookie undrafted free agent out of Clemson. Robert Tonyan has been able to flash at various points throughout his NFL career. However, Tonyan has not been much of a mainstay in the last few seasons. Then, there is Jared Wiley. Wiley will be entering his second career season in 2025. The Chiefs used a fourth-round pick on him in the 2024 NFL Draft.
Does Wiley have any danger of not making the team already? Even though it is still early in his career, the TCU product may have to scratch and claw more than anticipated to make the Week 1 roster.
Competition for tight end depth will be hard-fought
Simply put, the competition for the TE3 spot is stiff. Kansas City has been willing to keep more than three tight ends on the opening day roster before. Yet, Wiley is in a bit of an awkward position. He had some select snaps throughout seven total games last year. He hauled in just one pass. And in terms of blocking, Wiley was far from polished as he went through the rigors of his rookie year. To add to the work in progress, Wiley suffered a torn ACL in practice in the middle portion of the season.
Without those added reps late in the campaign, Wiley is essentially back to, or near, square one once again. Will he even be fully healthy to run routes and do drills in training camp? If so, getting back to feeling fully comfortable is a twisted challenge in addition to fighting for a roster spot.
What Chiefs will be looking for from additional tight ends
Jared Wiley was extremely raw within the Chiefs’ offense before suffering the unfortunate injury. That leads to more questions than answers surrounding his fit in the group entering 2025. Being able to play in the offense is one thing.
For Kansas City, items like special teams and dirty work in the run game can earn you even a minuscule role on the tight end depth chart. You could argue that either Briningstool or Tonyan offers higher ceilings in those aspects of the game than Wiley does.
Offensively, we will begin to see if those additional names pick up the offense or fit within the playbook naturally. If Wiley wants to lock down a spot on the opening day roster, proving he can handle multiple assignments will be key. He moved around the offensive formation during his college career. Wiley had success in the vertical passing game and in the quick passing game during his college career.
Time will tell if Kansas City believes he can perform better there than Briningstool or Tonyan. But currently, it feels like it is anybody’s game for the tight end depth spots on the Chiefs. Jared Wiley will have to work even harder to get back to where he was last year.
