{"id":44572,"date":"2025-04-28T03:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T03:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=44572"},"modified":"2025-04-28T03:30:01","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T03:30:01","slug":"chiefs-sign-top-ranked-udfa-tight-end-as-potential-travis-kelce-successor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=44572","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs Sign Top-Ranked UDFA Tight End as Potential Travis Kelce Successor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chiefs<\/div>\n
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\u00a9 Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/div>\n
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The\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0still 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.<\/p>\n

Kansas City struggled to make big plays in the passing game last season, as rookie wide receiver\u00a0Xavier Worthy\u00a0was the only consistent explosive threat for QB\u00a0Patrick 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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To that end, the Chiefs added the\u00a0top-ranked undrafted free agent\u00a0at the tight end position in\u00a0Jake 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.<\/p>\n

Briningstool caught 99 passes for\u00a01,028 yards and 12 touchdowns\u00a0over his final two collegiate seasons (26 games played).<\/p>\n

“What Briningstool lacks in mass he makes up for with toughness in both phases. He\u2019s a possession-based tight end who majors in zone-beaters but will struggle to separate against man coverage,”\u00a0wrote 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.”<\/p>\n

Kansas City did not draft a tight end with any of its seven picks and selected only one pass catcher — wide receiver\u00a0Jaylen Royals out of Utah State in the fourth round.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9 Kirby Lee-Imagn Images The\u00a0Kansas City Chiefs\u00a0still have one of the NFL’s all-time great tight ends in Travis Kelce on their roster heading into the 2025 campaign,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\nChiefs Sign Top-Ranked UDFA Tight End as Potential Travis Kelce Successor - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=44572\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chiefs Sign Top-Ranked UDFA Tight End as Potential Travis Kelce Successor - 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