Kansas City Chiefs Jared Wiley Suffers Season-Ending Injury
The Kansas City Chiefs, only two days away from their Week 9 Monday night contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, continue to suffer from injuries on their offense. Head Coach Andy Reid announced to reporters Saturday afternoon that rookie Tight End Jared Wiley tore his ACL in practice on a non-contact injury. The Kansas Chiefs have placed him on injury reserve, and with that, his rookie season comes to an end. The Chiefs have called up Tight End Peyton Hendershot from the practice squad and signed him to the active roster.
The Kansas City Chiefs also signed Tight End Anthony Firkser to the practice squad. This news comes right after Tight End Jody Fortson tore his ACL versus the Raiders last Sunday. Now both Wiley and Fortson join the list of offensive players Kansas City has lost to injuries this season.
Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Depth
The Kansas City Chiefs entered the season by drafting a promising 6-foot-6 pass catcher from TCU in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft in Jared Wiley to add to their experienced tight end room. Though eight weeks of the NFL season, Wiley has seen minimal action, with his lone catch of the season coming against the Bengals. Wiley has been able to learn from one of the greatest tight ends to ever place the game in Travis Kelce and another veteran in Noah Gray. After Jody Fortson went down with an ACL injury there was hope Wiley would now have a bigger opportunity in the offense.
However, this season in particular has been an unlucky one for Kansas City in the injury department and now Wiley is also out with an ACL tear, adding serious concern to the Chiefs’ tight end depth moving forward. With Wiley now out for the foreseeable future, both Noah Gray and Travis Kelce’s workload just became more significant. Especially with the Kansas City Chiefs being so fond of running double tight-end sets, and with Andy Reid at the helm of this offense.
A playcaller who is known for his creativity and unusual offline designs has always relied on this position in most of his schemes, and will now have to readjust with the tight end room being so depleted.
Peyton Hendershot Steps Up From Practice Squad
With Wiley’s injury confirmed, the Kansas City Chiefs are planning on calling up Peyton Hendershot from the practice squad to fill in for the loss of Wiley. Hendershot was acquired from the Cowboys at the roster-cut deadline, and he was originally brought in for his special team capabilities. However, now with the current status of the tight-end room, Hendershot will be asked to step up and play a larger role.
On the season, Hendershot has only played in one game this season, Week 2 against the Bengals. He played seven snaps, all of which were on special teams, but no stats were recorded. Despite this being the case, General Manager Brett Veach saw something in him when he was brought in back in September, and now is his chance to showcase his abilities and validate the Chiefs’ investment.
Although in this upcoming game it is unlikely Hendershot would have that much involvement in the offense, it is more likely he will see more time on special teams and then maybe a few plays here and there on offense. He could play when the Kansas City Chiefs are running certain packages that involve multiple tight ends. Moving forward, because the season is still young, Hendershot’s reliability as a blocker and his talents on special teams will be able to provide much-needed stability to a team that seems to suffer at least one new injury a week if not more.
Injuries Continue to Stack For The Chiefs’ Offense
In only eight weeks of the NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs have already faced a flurry of injuries to both offensive and defensive starters. However, this comes with playing this game, and Kansas City is not a special case. The injury bug has plagued the league more than usual this season, with key starters missing league-wide.
In the case of the Kansas City Chiefs, the injuries always seem to come right when the team might start to get rolling. This was especially true on the offensive end with Marquise “Hollywood” Brown going out right before the season started. Then Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco went down next, and now the Chiefs are down two tight ends. However, even with all of these injuries, this team has been able to do something that no other NFL team has and that’s overcome these setbacks and continue stacking wins.
Final Thoughts
The Kansas City Chiefs have faced injuries that continue to mount every week, and they remain steadfast, taking care of business each week no matter the opponent. The amount of resilience the team has shown this season after losing multiple offensive starters is admirable. It is still next man up, and up to this point whoever has been called up next has delivered.
With the core of the team formed by veteran players who have seen and experienced everything this league can throw at any player, this is the one team that can overcome these injuries and still win a Super Bowl. If their current 7-0 record does not prove that, their currently being the two-time defending Super Bowl champions should. Until shown otherwise, it will remain business as usual for the Kansas City Chiefs as they look to achieve more history with a win over the Buccaneers this Monday and inch ever closer to another world title.
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