Andy Reid Gives Midweek Update on Travis Kelce’s Knee Injury
The Kansas City Chiefs are just days away from their Week 2 game on the road against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and one of the major storylines of the week has been the ongoing injury situation with Travis Kelce.
The team's star tight end suffered a hyperextended knee and bone bruise late in last week's Tuesday practice, an ailment that forced him to miss Week 1's Thursday Night Football outing versus the visiting Detroit Lions. Head coach Andy Reid spoke positively about the veteran's injury progress on Monday and in a Wednesday episode of the New Heights podcast, Kelce echoed that optimism. With that said, neither coach nor player was authoritative in declaring that Patrick Mahomes's favorite target would play this weekend.
On Wednesday morning, Reid once again spoke to the media and provided some brief injury and availability updates. Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (illness) was the only Chief not set to not practice on Wednesday, with Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones slated to work. Reid said Kelce participated in the team walkthrough period earlier and continues to make progress, yet there still isn't a final call being made on his chances of playing down in Jacksonville.
"Trav did the walkthrough, and then he's going to go out to practice today and do that," Reid said. "He's made progress. Again, we're just taking those guys day-by-day and see how they're doing."
When asked what Week 1 was like without Kelce in the fold, Reid said he expects those who are playing to "finish a game when you have the opportunity." Non-Kelce tight ends combined for five receptions, 43 yards and a touchdown against Detroit, with the duo of Noah Gray and Blake Bell making up all the statistical production and playing 83 offensive snaps between them (Matt Bushman logged seven). Despite Kansas City's offense looking notably deficient without its best pass-catcher in the lineup, Reid reiterated that he was proud of what the backups were able to accomplish. Now, the focus shifts to the team trying to see if it can get Kelce ready to go for Sunday.
"The two that played the majority of the time were guys that have played for us," Reid said. "So Noah, I thought, he kind of replaced what Trav normally does. I thought he did a nice job in there. Blake has been around and he did what we asked him to do. He did a good job of that."
