The Kansas City Chiefs still have one of the NFL’s all-time great tight ends in Travis Kelce on their roster heading into the 2025 campaign, but how much longer he will play professional football is a major question the organization can’t ignore.
Kansas City struggled to make big plays in the passing game last season, as rookie wide receiver Xavier Worthy was the only consistent explosive threat for QB Patrick Mahomes. Meanwhile, the lack of weapons on the outside led to defenses ganging up on Kelce and generally gumming up the works of a Chiefs offense that also struggled mightily to run the football with regular success.
Mahomes noted the lack of downfield threats earlier this offseason, but just as important as adding one or two of those is putting in place a succession plan for Kelce should the upcoming season be his last. He will turn 36 years old roughly one month after kickoff Week 1.
To that end, the Chiefs added the top-ranked undrafted free agent at the tight end position in Jake Briningstool, formerly of Clemson. Briningstool stands at 6-feet, 6-inches tall and weighs 241 pounds. He also posted a 4.75-second time in the 40-yard dash and recorded a 31-inch vertical leap at the NFL combine.
Briningstool caught 99 passes for 1,028 yards and 12 touchdowns over his final two collegiate seasons (26 games played).
“What Briningstool lacks in mass he makes up for with toughness in both phases. He’s a possession-based tight end who majors in zone-beaters but will struggle to separate against man coverage,” wrote Lance Zierlein of NFL.com, who projected the TE as a fifth/sixth-round pick. “He operates in space with good body control and strong hands at the catch point and does an adequate job of keeping defenders on his hip. Despite a high pad level he can help as a run blocker both connected to the line and in space.”
Kansas City did not draft a tight end with any of its seven picks and selected only one pass catcher — wide receiver Jaylen Royals out of Utah State in the fourth round.
