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Kansas City Chiefs tight end Peyton Hendershot, who has been on injured reserve since Week 13 with a calf injury, was at practice on Monday, December 23, according to Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest. That means the team has opened his 21-day practice window to return from IR.
Though Hendershot likely won’t be activated in time for Kansas City’s Christmas Day game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, his return will be a welcomed addition whenever it may occur.
Tight ends Jared Wiley (torn ACL), Jody Fortson (torn ACL), and Baylor Cupp (undisclosed) are all on IR, which means Kansas City’s only healthy tight ends are Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, and Anthony Firkser. Because Kelce and Gray play a majority of the Chiefs’ offensive snaps, Firkser is the team’s only reserve tight end. The return of Hendershot will give the two-time defending Super Bowl champions some added insurance in case injuries begin to plague the TE room.
In five games played this season, Hendershot registered three catches on as many targets for 26 yards. He played 10% of the team’s total offensive snaps in those games as well as 45% of the special teams snaps, according to Pro Football Reference.
Hendershot will have a spot ready for him on the active roster whenever he’s available to return due to the team placing linebacker Jack Cochrane (fractured ankle) on IR on December 23.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid Speaks Highly of Hollywood Brown After Debut
Week 16 marked the regular season Chiefs debut for veteran receiver Hollywood Brown, who had been sidelined since the preseason due to an injury to his SC joint.
In the win over the Houston Texans, Brown caught five passes on eight targets for 45 yards while playing just 20% of the team’s offensive snaps.
Speaking to the media on December 23, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid gave his evaluation of Brown and his first game back since August.
“I thought he (Hollywood Brown) did a pretty good job,” Reid said during his press conference. “He didn’t have a ton of snaps. We’ll keep increasing that as we go. I thought for the snaps he had, I thought he played pretty good football. Also, he got to take a hit. That’s always the — when you have that upper body injury just getting that first hit is a big thing.”
Patrick Mahomes Discusses Having Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy in Lineup Together
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes also spoke on Monday and detailed the impact of Brown being back in the lineup.
“Yeah, I think you’re just trying to see kind of what this offense was meant to be,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, we don’t have Rashee (Rice) out there but having some other guys [that] we’ve added to try to fill that role as best as we can. You can see where we thought we were going to be at the beginning of the year. Obviously, we have to ramp it up fast against some really good teams, but I thought it was a great start having Hollywood out there for a limited number of snaps and him making an impact on the game and Xavier (Worthy) and everybody. That was a good defense [that] we went up against. It’ll be another challenge this week – can we build on that and build some momentum into the playoffs.”
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