The Kansas City Chiefs have returned many starters from their Super Bowl-winning season, but they also return a handful of developmental players too. Guys who’ve been on the practice squad or depth in the past have an equal opportunity to impress during training camp.
One player who has recently taken his game to the next level is TE Nick Keizer, who spent the 2019 season on the practice squad in Kansas City. Keizer was a late addition ahead of the 2019 preseason after injuries at the TE position began to pile up.
Fast forward to 2020 and injuries at the position have Keizer taking snaps with the first-team offense, working alongside starting TE Travis Kelce and star QB Patrick Mahomes. Taking advantage of that opportunity has earned Keizer an extended look as the No. 2 tight end in Kansas City. It’s also earned some praise from Mahomes.
“For Keizer, what’s impressed me the most is the way that he’s able to correct things and do things the right way the next time,” Mahomes said. “He’s had success from some of the different stuff that he’s learned from Travis (Kelce) and some of those guys from last year. You’re really seeing his game evolve and you’re really seeing how he’s seeing how the older guys have done it and had success with it. He’s adding that to his game and then he’s finding stuff that he’s good at and he’s going out there and having success with that. When you have guys like that who can learn from the veteran guys that we have on this team, then you have guys who can go out there and have success on the field.”
Learning from the best tight end in the NFL certainly has its perks. Keizer credits Kelce and Blake Bell for his development, saying that working behind them helped him absorb a ton of information. At the same time, Mahomes has noticed the perseverance in Keizer, figuring out what works best for his game and also learning from mistakes at practice.
Keizer has put in the work on his own time required to see that success on the field. One thing that he specifically sought to improve this offseason was his ability as a receiver. He had some big receiving games at Grand Valley State University in college, but he needed to do a bit more to find success at the NFL level. Keizer always considered himself a good blocker, but now he brings more to the table.
“I feel like I’ve developed a lot in the past year,” Keizer said. “Being behind those guys like I said, learning what they do and observing and watching them and kind of implementing that into my game. Then spending a lot of time in the offseason – I’ve always felt like a pretty strong blocker, but this offseason I spent a lot of time working on my routes, my quickness, speed, releases and stuff like that. I feel like that’s kind of slightly brought me to a better level of overall versatility. I feel like I provide a good blocking element to the offense which we have a lot of run schemes that the tight end is involved in at the point of attack. I feel like that’s something I can bring to the table and help displace guys and creating holes as well as the other side of the game, the route running and stuff. Just being crisp and knowing my assignments, I feel like that’s something I’m able to do.”
There still might be a sense of amazement when the ball leaves Mahomes’ hands and heads in Keizer’s direction, but he’s clearly worked hard for this moment. He’s worked on his explosion, his strength, his power. He’s fine-tuned every aspect of his game. Now, he’s reaping the rewards of his hard work over the course of the past season, with an opportunity to become more involved in one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses.
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