The Kansas City Chiefs have given us our first look at the starting offense during Dwayne Bowe’s retirement ceremony.
On Thursday, Bowe signed a one-day contract in order to officially retire with the Chiefs. It’s the third of these types of retirements for the Chiefs during the 2019 offseason, and each of the players has received a ceremonious sendoff from the current Chiefs’ team. Jamaal Charles had a final carry, Derrick Johnson broke the defensive huddle, and Bowe lined up and caught a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs released a cool little video hyping up the moment, and with it they gave us our first peak at the offensive starters lined up. Check out the video below:
There are three important depth chart related observations in this video. First up is the starter at the left guard position. Currently it’s Andrew Wylie, who started at right guard in place of Laurent Duvernay-Tardif in 2018. Last season the starter at left guard was Cameron Erving, who the Chiefs signed to a contract extension. It’s not clear why Wylie is lining up with the starters, but this is something to monitor during OTAs.
Additionally, Austin Reiter is the Chiefs’ starting center, which is expected after he signed a contract extension. The question here is whether he’s earned that role as a starter or if he’ll receive competition for the job from seventh-round draft pick Nick Allegretti. OTAs will be a good time to monitor this situation.
Finally, the starter at tight end is Deon Yelder and not Blake Bell. Travis Kelce is still recovering from offseason ankle surgery, but it appears that the Chiefs have tabbed Yelder as the guy for the No. 2 job over Bell who they signed in free agency. Chiefs fans haven’t seen much at all out of Yelder. He was signed to the practice squad late in the 2018 season. The team elevated and stashed him on the roster as the No. 3 behind Demetrius Harris after just a few weeks on the practice squad.
The most important aspect of the video, of course, is that Bowe still has his signature swag. He looks pretty good catching passes from Mahomes, don’t you think Chiefs Kingdom?
