Wasn't sure where to put this or what to call it but, Travis just scored on a 69 yard reception in the 2nd quarter against the Bengals. Don't know if that is his first TD in the NFL (pre-season or whatever) but maybe.

Didn't he get hurt in pre-season last year?

Yes, he was on IR all of last season.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce shows off speed in return to game action

By TEREZ A. PAYLOR

The Kansas City Star

08/07/2014 10:07 PM


Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) was congratulated by wide receiver Albert Wilson (8) after scoring on a 69-yard catch in the second quarter of Thursday’s NFL preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.JOHN SLEEZER/The Kansas City Star

After undergoing offseason microfracture surgery on his right knee, there was some degree of intrigue about whether tight end Travis Kelce still had the explosiveness he flashed before the injury.

And while nothing that happened in the Chiefs’ preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday should qualify as a resounding answer, Kelce’s explosive 69-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter is a positive sign.

Kelce started the play matched up in the slot against Cincinnati’s rookie cornerback Lavelle Westbrooks. He ran right up the seam, where quarterback Chase Daniel found him wide open about 17 yards downfield.

Kelce, who is listed at 6 feet 5 and 260 pounds, took care of the rest as he sprinted through the Bengals’ secondary.

It was the kind of play the Chiefs hoped to see more from Kelce last season, when injuries prevented the fleet-footed former Cincinnati Bearcat from making a significant contribution as a rookie.

Kelce, whom the Chiefs took in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft, wowed during offseason workouts last year and was also impressive in training camp. He caught two passes for 28 yards in the preseason before a bone bruise in his knee sidelined him for a significant portion of camp. He appeared briefly in one regular-season game but was put on injured reserve in October after a microfracture procedure.

The Chiefs certainly missed him. Starter Anthony Fasano missed seven games because of injury, and while Sean McGrath proved to be serviceable, the Chiefs’ tight ends caught only 54 passes for 537 yards, well below the averages of 72 catches and 855 yards Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s tight ends in Philadelphia posted from 2009 to 2012.

Kelce spent the offseason rehabbing and was a limited participant during organized team activities in June, but has managed to stay healthy for the majority of training camp.

But while he had been running free and easy, he hadn’t shown the same type of explosiveness he had last year — at least until Thursday.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/nfl/kan...69921.html

Good to see he's feeling better and enjoying himself. I think the dive is awesome. I miss seeing him knock people on their asses. Hope we can get another on his level.

That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

(08-07-2014 11:05 PM)ctipton Wrote:  That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

He lead the team with 73 yards receiving last night.

Kelce ran a 4.65 forty at the combine. I don't recall his UC pro day numbers but I remember it being better than his combine time.

The dude is fast. He was vastly under-utilized at UC his senior year.

The play reminded me of his TD at the end of the Belk Bowl.

(08-08-2014 12:05 AM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-07-2014 11:05 PM)ctipton Wrote:  That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

(08-08-2014 09:02 AM)nachoman91 Wrote:  Kelce ran a 4.65 forty at the combine. I don't recall his UC pro day numbers but I remember it being better than his combine time.

The dude is fast. He was vastly under-utilized at UC his senior year.

I thought he was utilized quite well during his senior year, it was all the years before that they had no idea what they had in their TEs.

(08-08-2014 09:02 AM)nachoman91 Wrote:  Kelce ran a 4.65 forty at the combine. I don't recall his UC pro day numbers but I remember it being better than his combine time.

The dude is fast. He was vastly under-utilized at UC his senior year.

Fans of every school always complain about the TE being underutilized. ND fans did it every year with Kyle Rudolph. It's not as easy to utilize a TE in the passing game as people think, especially with the types of defenses some teams throw at you. I actually thought they did a really good job of utilizing him his senior year. He had some really good games as a senior... USF, Rutgers, Fordham, Toledo, Syracuse, and of course the bowl game. How often do you see a TE put up 700 plus yards receiving and nearly 10 TD's in a season? I think he led the BE in receiving yards and TD's for TE's his senior year.

Im not a die hard bengals fan, not really an NFL fan. I have a few ohio state friends(actually I hate them) who love the bengals a little less than they love the hairless nuts. Well they werent too happy about Kelce last night....How can we let a bearcat beat us nonsense....I laughed

(08-08-2014 09:07 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 12:05 AM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-07-2014 11:05 PM)ctipton Wrote:  That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

^^ I think they did under use him last year too. I wonder how much of it was the staff being new and not undertanding what they had. It would have been fun watching a big kid that fast run some TE reverses or screens.

(08-08-2014 09:26 AM)Marcus Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:07 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 12:05 AM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-07-2014 11:05 PM)ctipton Wrote:  That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

It wasn't that Annen was under utilized, it was that the receivers were properly utilized at the expense of the tight ends and running backs. The Bearcats were damn near unstoppable in three and four receiver sets and very, very average anytime they tried to get big with their personnel. Look at it this way, Annen was targeted 23 times last year, from which receiver are you taking targets and giving them to Annen? I would argue none of them.

(08-08-2014 09:11 PM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:26 AM)Marcus Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:07 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 12:05 AM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-07-2014 11:05 PM)ctipton Wrote:  That is some damned good speed for a 260 lb tight end.

It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

It wasn't that Annen was under utilized, it was that the receivers were properly utilized at the expense of the tight ends and running backs. The Bearcats were damn near unstoppable in three and four receiver sets and very, very average anytime they tried to get big with their personnel. Look at it this way, Annen was targeted 23 times last year, from which receiver are you taking targets and giving them to Annen? I would argue none of them.

Morrison. But otherwise I agree. Annen never quite stood out to me the way other star TEs have here. I wash shocked at his pro day numbers.

(08-08-2014 10:29 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:11 PM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:26 AM)Marcus Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:07 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 12:05 AM)Mopper Wrote:  It still amazes me that Butch and Bajakian had two of the best athletes to play for the bearcats in TK and Adrien Robinson in the same position group in the 2011 season and all he could get from them was 25 catches, 335 yards and 5 TD's. They had no idea what to do with them because they never had talent at the spot at CMU. But they figured it out in 2012.

They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

It wasn't that Annen was under utilized, it was that the receivers were properly utilized at the expense of the tight ends and running backs. The Bearcats were damn near unstoppable in three and four receiver sets and very, very average anytime they tried to get big with their personnel. Look at it this way, Annen was targeted 23 times last year, from which receiver are you taking targets and giving them to Annen? I would argue none of them.

Morrison. But otherwise I agree. Annen never quite stood out to me the way other star TEs have here. I wash shocked at his pro day numbers.

As good as our receivers were last year, it's kind of hard for me to believe that a guy with Annen's size and speed didn't present a bigger matchup problem than most if not all of our receivers. I don't know how great his hands rate but that's at least partially because we didn't throw to him enough to find out. As far as where his targets would come from I think they'd have been spread out rather than just eliminated one particular receiver.

(08-08-2014 11:30 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 10:29 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:11 PM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:26 AM)Marcus Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:07 AM)CliftonAve Wrote:  They figured out how to utilzed Kelce, but looking back I think they underutilzed Blake Annen as well. Annen ran a 4.41 40 at his Pro Day. They could have better utlized both in 2012.

In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

It wasn't that Annen was under utilized, it was that the receivers were properly utilized at the expense of the tight ends and running backs. The Bearcats were damn near unstoppable in three and four receiver sets and very, very average anytime they tried to get big with their personnel. Look at it this way, Annen was targeted 23 times last year, from which receiver are you taking targets and giving them to Annen? I would argue none of them.

Morrison. But otherwise I agree. Annen never quite stood out to me the way other star TEs have here. I wash shocked at his pro day numbers.

As good as our receivers were last year, it's kind of hard for me to believe that a guy with Annen's size and speed didn't present a bigger matchup problem than most if not all of our receivers. I don't know how his hands ranked but that's at least partially because we didn't throw to him enough to find out. As far as where his targets would come from I think they'd have been spread out rather than just eliminated one particular receiver.

I'm pretty sure he cut about 25-30lbs to run that 40 too, because there is no way the kid out on that field for us in the fall was capable of running anywhere near a 4.4

(08-09-2014 01:06 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 11:30 PM)Bearhawkeye Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 10:29 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:11 PM)Mopper Wrote:  

(08-08-2014 09:26 AM)Marcus Wrote:  In that case you could say they underutilized Annen big-time last year as well. Didn't he only have like 180 receiving yards last season?

It wasn't that Annen was under utilized, it was that the receivers were properly utilized at the expense of the tight ends and running backs. The Bearcats were damn near unstoppable in three and four receiver sets and very, very average anytime they tried to get big with their personnel. Look at it this way, Annen was targeted 23 times last year, from which receiver are you taking targets and giving them to Annen? I would argue none of them.

Morrison. But otherwise I agree. Annen never quite stood out to me the way other star TEs have here. I wash shocked at his pro day numbers.

As good as our receivers were last year, it's kind of hard for me to believe that a guy with Annen's size and speed didn't present a bigger matchup problem than most if not all of our receivers. I don't know how his hands ranked but that's at least partially because we didn't throw to him enough to find out. As far as where his targets would come from I think they'd have been spread out rather than just eliminated one particular receiver.

I'm pretty sure he cut about 25-30lbs to run that 40 too, because there is no way the kid out on that field for us in the fall was capable of running anywhere near a 4.4

I don't know what weight he actually played at but he weighed 247 pounds and was strong enough to do 25 reps at the same time he was running the 4.4s (not to mention the fact he apparently showed good hands too.)

Quote:The best performance of the day was by tight end Blake Annen (6-foot-4 1/8, 247 pounds), who posted two very good times in the 40: a 4.41 and a 4.42. He also had a 34-inch vertical jump and a 10-foot broad jump. He ran the short shuttle in 4.30 seconds and the 3-cone drill in 7.19, and he threw the bar up 25 times. He had a very strong workout, both running and catching the ball.