The Kansas City Chiefs made a pair of roster moves on Friday in addition to their usual practice squad elevation.
As expected, the Chiefs have placed TE Jody Fortson on injured reserve. Fortson suffered a dislocated elbow in the Week 15 win over the Houston Texans. He’ll be required to miss the next four weeks at a minimum on injured reserve, meaning he won’t be eligible to return until the second week of the playoffs.
In a corresponding move, the team activated TE Blake Bell to the 53-man roster from injured reserve. Bell returns after suffering a hip flexor injury in Week 1 of the preseason. The Week 16 game against the Seattle Seahawks will be his first meaningful game since the AFC title game last season.
Bell’s return was a bit of a surprise given that he was just designated to return from injured reserve this past week, while Mecole Hardman was designated to return a week ago. Andy Reid spoke about the situation on Thursday.
“Listen, I’ll give you what I feel at this point without checking with (Vice President of Sports Medicine and Performance) Rick (Burkholder),” Reid proclaimed. “I feel pretty good about (Blake) Bell (but) Mecole (Hardman), I’m not sure he’s where he needs to be, but we’ll talk to him and we’ll just see. We have him in a very limited role, and I want to check with the kid and Rick here – and Rick will talk to Mecole, too.”
As for the practice squad elevations, the team only made one this week, but it tells us a bit about who will be inactive on Sunday. With DT Khalen Saunders listed as doubtful, the Chiefs have activated DT Danny Shelton via standard elevation. This is the first time that the former first-round draft pick Shelton has been activated to the 53-man roster this season. He should see some action in the rotation alongside Derrick Nnadi and Brandon Williams with Saunders expected to sit with his illness.
