The Kansas City Chiefs made a flurry of transactions on Saturday, January 28, one of which was activating tight end Jody Fortson (elbow) from injured reserve.
The Chiefs have activated TE Jody Fortson from IR to the 53-man roster and elevated WR Marcus Kemp and WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette from the practice squad for tomorrow’s game.
Along with activating Fortson, the Chiefs also elevated receivers Marcus Kemp and Ihmir Smith-Marsette from the practice squad to the game day roster for the AFC Championship.
Two days before Christmas is when Fortson landed on injured reserve after suffering the injury in the team’s Week 15 overtime win against the Houston Texans. He will join a lineup against the Cincinnati Bengals that includes tight ends Travis Kelce, Blake Bell, and Noah Gray. Kelce (back) was added to the injury report on Friday and listed as questionable for the AFC Championship.
Although Fortson’s re-introduction into Kansas City’s offense is expected to be slow, that could change if Kelce isn’t able to suit up.
With that being said, Kelce was a full participant at practice the same day he popped up on the injury report. That means he’s still on track to suit up on Sunday despite the injury designation.
Prior to being injured, Fortson played in 13 total games for the Chiefs during the regular season and played a total of 184 offensive snaps and 181 special teams snaps, according to Pro Football Reference. With those offensive snaps he recorded 9 catches on 13 targets for 108 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns.
Patrick Mahomes connects with TE Jody Fortson for a 10-yard TD. PAT is GOOD.
#Chiefs – 38
#Buccaneers – 17
Mahomes: 20-of-32, 220 yards, 3 TDs #ChiefsKingdom
Mahomes Outlines Week Prep With Injury
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes suffered a high-ankle sprain during Kansas City’s 27-20 win in the Divisional Round over the Jacksonville Jaguars. Despite the injury, Mahomes finished that game — he played the entire second half — was a full participant in every practice leading up to the AFC Title Game, and has no injury designation for the game.
That’s a pretty impressive feat, even if Mahomes isn’t being completely transparent about the severity of his ankle injury.
Speaking to the media on January 26, Mahomes outlined his schedule for the week leading up to the AFC Championship to peel the curtain back on his speedy recovery.
“You get here pretty early, you do some treatment and then you go to your meetings, you come back,” Mahomes explained during his presser. “I have a lot of media this week, so knocking the media out, then do some rehab and stuff like that to prepare yourself for practice. You get treatment after practice after you’re watching film and stuff like that and then you do a little bit more rehab and then you go home.
“They have like 8,000 different devices you can use before you go to sleep, then you wake up and do it all over again. It’s a full day’s schedule, so I try to just make sure that I can prepare my body the best way possible and (wife) Brittany’s (Mahomes) is taking that mom role to a higher level this week because I haven’t been home a ton.”
Twitter Reacts to Fortson Being Activated from IR
Twitter users reacted to Jody Fortson being activated from injured reserve ahead of the AFC Championship.
“Any reason to think Chiefs knew of injury risk to Kelce and this is why [they lost [Chris] Lammons and elevated Fortson? Seems oddly timed. Maybe coincidence,” one Twitter user wrote.
@MattVerderame Any reason to think Chiefs knew of injury risk to Kelce and this is why that lost Lammons and elevated Fortson? Seems oddly timed. Maybe coincidence.
“We gonna see a lot of 12, 13 and even 14 personnel on the field for the Chiefs Sunday night. Ohhh man this is gonna be fun,” another user wrote.
@mattderrick We gonna see a lot of 12, 13 and even 14 personnel on the field for the Chiefs Sunday night. Ohhh man this is gonna be fun.
“After Kelce tweaked his back, Jody was the easy activation vs CEH (Clyde Edwards-Helaire),” another user wrote.
@mattderrick After Kelce tweaked his back, Jody was the easy activation vs CEH.
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