USA Today
TIME HOP: Former Eagles OL Catches TD Pass
Dennis Kelly was a rookie during the final season Andy Reid coached the Eagles.
In Sunday’s AFC Championship Game, Kelly came back to haunt his former coach, catching a one-yard touchdown pass that gave his new team, the Tennessee Titans, a 17-7 lead over Reid's current team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
It was a lead that didn’t hold up, though, as KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for a 27-yard touchdown in the final minute of the second quarter to give the Chiefs a lead they would not relinquish on their way to a 35-24 win.
The win moved Reid into his second Super Bowl appearance, and first since he took the Eagles there in the 2004 season.
Kelly has been a backup tackle most of his career, though he did start 10 games for Reid as a rookie.
It’s the reason that many thought Eagles general manager Howie Roseman had won the trade when, in 2016, he sent Kelly to the Titans in exchange for receiver Dorial Green-Beckham.
Granted, Green-Beckham was a troubled talent, one with a questionable work ethic, but the thinking at the time was he would benefit from a change of scenery.
Green-Beckham lasted only one season in Philly.
In 2016, which was his last season in the league, he played 15 games in quarterback Carson Wentz’s rookie season. DGB was targeted 74 times but made just 36 catches for 392 yards (10.9 yards per reception) and two touchdowns.
Kelly, meanwhile, is still at work in his eighth season and still productive after turning 30 on Jan. 16.
Not bad for a player who wasn’t invited to the NFL Scouting Combine coming out of Purdue.
Kelly became a fifth-round draft pick of the Eagles.
He overcame back surgery in 2013 that kept him off the field that season. He had to move to guard in 2014 after injuries hit the Eagles’ offensive line hard but lasted just three games before another injury struck.
Kelly didn't end up making his fist Super Bowl trip, but he will forever be able to say he scored a touchdown in an AFC Championship Game.
