The Kansas City Chiefs waived tight end Tre Watson on Sunday, as the club trims toward the NFL’s 53-man deadline. ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the move. Watson could return to Kansas City’s practice squad if he clears waivers.
The cut lands on the league’s most chaotic day of the calendar, when 32 teams simultaneously slash their rosters by nearly half. Watson’s release leaves a tight end room that spent training camp sorting out one open spot behind three established veterans.
Tre Watson’s Path to Kansas City
Watson was born Oct. 12, 2002, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and stands 6-foot-5, 250 pounds. He starred at Cleveland High School as a two-sport athlete, drawing a dozen college offers before becoming the program’s first player to reach the NFL, according to the Rio Rancho Observer.
“Tre was special all along. His approach to everything he has done to this point has been elite,” Watson’s high school coach, Heath Ridenour, said, as quoted by the Observer.
His college career ran through Fresno State from 2021 to 2023 before he transferred to Texas A&M for 2024. He caught 38 passes for 378 yards and four touchdowns in his final Fresno State season, then started 12 of 13 games for the Aggies, finishing with 21 receptions, 280 yards and one score, according to Chiefs.com.
Watson signed with Kansas City as an undrafted free agent after the 2025 draft.
Watson opened the 2025 offseason on the non-football injury list, was activated that July and played all three preseason games without cracking the 53-man roster. He spent the entire 2025 season on Kansas City’s practice squad before re-signing to a reserve/future contract in January. That 2026 deal carried an $885,000 base salary with none of it guaranteed, according to contract data published by Over The Cap. He caught one pass for five yards on three targets in this year’s preseason.
Kansas City’s Tight End Room After the Trim
Kansas City entered final cuts with six tight ends on the depth chart — Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Jared Wiley, Jake Briningstool, Watson and Mason Pline, with John Michael Gyllenborg already sidelined on injured reserve. The Chiefs have kept four tight ends for Week 1 in each of the past two seasons, with Kelce, Gray and Wiley occupying three of those spots both times, leaving Briningstool, Watson and Pline to fight for the fourth job.
Watson’s waiver arrived alongside a wave of other cuts, including linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and cornerback Zelmar Vedder, distinct from veteran cap-driven cuts like cornerbacks Kaiir Elam and D’Arco Perkins-McAllister. No statement on Watson specifically has come from Andy Reid or the Chiefs’ front office.
“This is, like, the hardest time of the year for coaches, personnel guys and players, for that matter, because you’ve got to make these cuts coming up,” Reid said Friday after Kansas City’s preseason finale, as quoted by KSHB.
Watson is widely expected to draw practice-squad interest again if he clears waivers this week. The Chiefs also added offensive tackle Diego Pounds in a trade with Baltimore over the weekend, a sign the roster is still shifting on both ends as Kansas City finalizes its 53-man group before kickoff.
Chiefs Release 6-Foot-5, 250-Pound Tight End Hours Before 53-Man Deadline