Getty Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Albert Wilson.
A former Kansas City Chiefs pass catcher has hit free agency prior to the regular season.
Wide receiver Albert Wilson was cut by the Minnesota Vikings on Monday, August 22, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Vikings released veteran WR Albert Wilson and waived/injured DL Jullian Taylor.
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Wilson, 30, entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Georgia State in 2014. He signed with the Chiefs in May of that year and would remain in Kansas City for four seasons. During that time, Wilson recorded 124 receptions, 1,544 receiving yards and seven touchdowns.
Following the 2018 season, Wilson entered free agency and signed a three-year $24 million deal with the Miami Dolphins. Over the next three seasons, he accumulated 955 receiving yards on 94 catches and five touchdowns.
Wilson remained a free agent for a better part of the 2022 offseason before the Vikings signed him on June 1. He was cut ahead of the 4 p.m. Eastern time deadline on Tuesday, August 23, so Minnesota could shave its roster down to the required 80 players.
Chiefs Lose Claim on Missouri Native
The Chiefs lost their waiver claim over the weekend for a player with local ties.
The player was tight end Kendall Blanton, who was claimed by the Washington Commanders, according to ESPN’s Field Yates. The Commanders have a higher waiver priority than the Chiefs, which is why they won the claim for Blanton.
“It was a near homecoming, as Blanton is from the Kansas City area and played his college ball at Missouri,” Yates tweeted on August 22.
The Chiefs were another team to put in a waiver claim on new Commanders TE Kendall Blanton, who went to Washington due to higher waiver priority, per source.
It was a near homecoming, as Blanton is from the Kansas City area and played his college ball at Missouri.
Some within Chiefs Kingdom might know Blanton because of his connection to the state of Missouri. He played high school football at Blue Springs South and played college football at Missouri.
During his senior at Missouri in 2018, Blanton recorded 22 catches for 77 receiving yards and two touchdowns. He entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2019 and joined the Los Angeles Rams practice squad that year. Blanton was active for one game during the 2019 season.
He was waived by Los Angeles in September 2020 but re-joined the team in September 2021 as a practice squad player. He did, however, play in 11 games last season for the reigning Super Bowl champions.
Could Chiefs Be Hinting at Lengthy Absence for Blake Bell?
The waiver claim for Blanton by Kansas City is odd considering that the Chiefs already have six tight ends on the roster (Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Blake Bell, Jody Fortson, Jordan Franks and Matt Bushman). But they might be hinting at a lengthy absence for Bell.
Bell suffered a hip flexor injury during Kansas City’s preseason opener against the Chicago Bears and has not practiced since then nor did he play in the team’s preseason game against the Washington Commanders. Head coach Andy Reid detailed Bell’s injury as “unusual” but did not provide further context to that.
While the Chiefs’ putting a claim in for Blanton doesn’t definitively mean Bell will be sidelined for a lengthy amount of time, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Kansas City to sign a seventh tight end unless one of the tight ends on the roster will no longer be on the roster soon.
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4-Year Chiefs WR Cut by NFC Squad: Report