It’s the end of an era for Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid.
10 days ago we pondered if Reid had officially moved on from the fullback position after he made some intriguing comments on Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast. To paraphrase, he said that the position has been pushed out of the modern game and that few teams truly use a fullback anymore. It was a wild admission from Reid, as he’s insisted on having a fullback on the roster in each of his 24 years as head coach.
After the departure of Michael Burton this offseason, Kansas City didn’t go out and sign a fullback or address the position in the draft. Speaking on the subject for the first time following Wednesday’s practice at OTAs, Reid confirmed that his affinity for the fullback position is no more.
“Yeah, so the tight ends can work into that spot,” Reid told reporters. “We know that Noah (Gray) can do all of that. That’s kind of where we went with it. We’ve got a number of tight ends who we feel comfortable with. So, maybe you keep an extra tight end instead of a fullback.”
There you have it, Chiefs Kingdom. The team will no longer be wasting a roster spot on a dedicated fullback.
It sounds as if Noah Gray will be playing more of an H-back role with the responsibilities of a tight end and a fullback. He already does a lot of the blocking on the wings and he lined up as a fullback frequently during his time at Duke, including 10 snaps during his senior season.
The team has kept as many four tight ends in the past, but now they’ll seemingly have another roster spot available. That could either be used on an extra tight end or perhaps even a wide receiver. We’ll just have to see how things play out during training camp.
