Kansas City perennial Pro-Bowl tight end Travis Kelce hyperextended his knee at practice today and is now considered ‘questionable’ for Thursday’s opener at home vs. Detroit, head coach Andy Reid revealed early Tuesday afternoon.
“The next guy steps in and we roll,” Reid said when quizzed about how the game plan might be altered without Kelce. “That’s what you do if [he doesn’t play].”
Most books had the Chiefs installed as 6.5-point favorites this morning. When the news broke, most spots initially moved the number to -6. However, as of 4:00 p.m. Eastern, the Westgate SuperBook, Circa and Caesars were down to -5, while most offshore shops were at -5.5.
The total also moved based on the Kelce news, going from 54.5 points down to 53. Circa was all the way down to 52.5.
Before Kelce’s injury was announced, I had already backed Kansas City to go ‘over’ its Team Total of 30.5 points and ‘over’ its first-half Team Total of 16.5. The Chiefs now have a Team Total of 28.5 or 29 points, and their number for the first half has moved from 16.5 to 14.5.
Kansas City has two other TEs in Noah Gray and Blake Bell. Gray played in all 17 regular-season games last season, hauling in 28 catches on 34 targets for 299 receiving yards and one touchdown. In three postseason games, Gray had three receptions for 37 yards.
Bell only played in three regular-season games in 2022, catching two balls for 20 yards and one TD. He had one catch for four years in the playoffs.
Kelce played in all 17 regular-season games last year, producing a career-high 110 receptions for 1,338 yards and 12 TDs. During the postseason, he had 27 catches for 257 yards and four TDs.