Chiefs sign former Saints wide receiver Kyle Sheets

The Kansas City Chiefs signed a former New Orleans Saints wide receiver. Rookie free agent Kyle Sheets has already landed his next NFL opportunity:

It didn’t take long for Kyle Sheets to find his next NFL opportunity. The New Orleans Saints signed him as a rookie free agent out of Slippery Rock after April’s NFL draft, but he was let go after minicamp practices in the spring. And now he’s signing with the Kansas City Chiefs, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

Good for him. Sheets caught a tough break after being waived so soon, but he has the physical tools to succeed at a listed 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. He dominated his level of competition so it isn’t surprising to see him land with another team before training camp. We’ll see if he’s still around when the Saints visit Arrowhead Stadium for a prime-time game in October.

Sheets isn’t the only former Saints player in Kansas City. The Chiefs brought in 2021 fourth-round pick Ian Book to compete for their backup quarterback job. Book and Sheets will probably see a lot of each other early in training camp on Kansas City’s third-string offense, and they’ll need to work hard to climb the depth chart from there.

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Saints sign tight end Jesper Horsted, waive rookie wide receiver Kyle Sheets

The New Orleans Saints signed former Raiders tight end Jesper Horsted after an injury to Juwan Johnson, waiving rookie wide receiver Kyle Sheets to make room:

The New Orleans Saints announced Friday they had signed tight end Jesper Horsted, waiving undrafted rookie wide receiver Kyle Sheets to make room. Formerly of the Las Vegas Raiders and Chicago Bears, Horsted was brought in to reinforce the depth chart after an injury to starting tight end Juwan Johnson.

Horsted has mostly played special teams after turning pro out of Princeton, though he has caught 14 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns in his four-year NFL career. He has also made ten tackles in the kicking game. He’s someone they know well. Horsted was teammates with Derek Carr on the Raiders in 2022 and he was coached by Clancy Barone with the Bears before that.

Johnson is expected to return in time for the start of the regular season so the Saints weren’t going to look for a big name to replace him. Look for Foster Moreau and rookie favorite Dallin Holker at practices over the summer with veteran backups Michael Jacobson and Tommy Hudson in the mix, plus Taysom Hill.

As for Sheets: the rookie from Slippery Rock was guaranteed just $30,000 in his contract with the Saints so there won’t be much of a salary cap impact from letting him go. We’ll wish him well in catching on with a new team.

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NFL analyst says Saints signed a top-10 undrafted free agent rookie class

The New Orleans Saints signed another highly-rated class of rookie free agents. Here’s why their undrafted rookies arrive with high expectations:

There aren’t many teams that can match the New Orleans Saints’ success in recruiting, developing, and leaning on undrafted talent. Just in recent years we’ve seen former rookie free agents like Rashid Shaheed, J.T. Gray, Carl Granderson, Juwan Johnson, Deonte Harty and Wil Lutz earn starting jobs and even Pro Bowl recognition after not hearing their names called during the NFL draft.

And this year’s crop has a lot of potential, too. FantasyPros’ Thor Nystrom is  one of the best at evaluating the draft each year, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who more thoroughly studies the players available as undrafted rookies. This year, he ranked the Saints’ class of undrafted free agents at No. 9 among the NFL’s 32 teams.

A major factor in that lofty placement was the pickup of former Colorado State tight end Dallin Holker. Nystrom ranked Holker as his 156th-best prospect in the entire draft, and the seventh-best tight end. Here’s why he’s still high on Holker despite some athletic limitations:

TE Dallin Holker is headed for an H-Back role at the next level that he absolutely has the skill to excel at. The question becomes… does he have the physical ability? Holker lacks speed (4.78), and he needs space to build up to that meager gear (24th-percentile 10-yard split).

Additionally, as one of the classes’ oldest players, there’s a glass ceiling on his potential within that usage-specific role. That said, Holker is a hands-catcher with real ball skills, a rarity amongst this class. Holker’s 10 contested catches last year were two more than any TE in this draft class.

Holker has one genetic quirk that decidedly works in his favor in this area: Holker is tied with the 6’7/260 Brevyn Spann-Ford for the longest arms of my top-15 TE. This gives Holker a deceivingly large catch radius that he uses to great effect, extending those long levers out to greet the rock at its earliest point every time.

Holker posted a sublime 94th-percentile 3-cone and an 83rd-percentile short shuttle. Holker’s change-of-direction fluidness is most evident after the catch, where he was a veritable broken-tackle machine in the Mountain West, finishing No. 2 in this class with 15 last year.

One area to work on at the next level to play up his natural agility and win more separation is footwork efficiency during the route-break process. But, overall, what his routes lack in snap and pizazz, Holker augments with tempo changes and a fun grab bag of upper-body deeks.

But Holker wasn’t the only rookie free agent the Saints signed after the draft. Nystrom is also high on former Yale wide receiver Mason Tipton, who offers game-breaking speed, and who we spoke with in an exclusive interview.  He’s one of several intriguing wideouts the Saints picked up as undrafted free agents, along with Jermaine Jackson (who had four kick return touchdowns at Idaho) and Kyle Sheets (who dominated his competition at Slippery Rock). All three of them should be in the mix for a roster spot or place on the practice squad.

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Undrafted Saints WR Kyle Sheets picked as an instant-impact rookie

Undrafted Saints wide receiver Kyle Sheets picked as an instant-impact rookie. Making the leap to the NFL from Slippery Rock won’t be easy, but he might be special:

The New Orleans Saints have been busy in undrafted free agency as they try to find a hidden gem that can make the roster. They have a thin wide receiver room this year so the door could open for someone new to earn a roster spot.

For Touchdown Wire’s Jarrett Bailey, the player that could make an immediate impact is Slippery Rock’s Kyle Sheets:

Alright, let’s talk some Division-II studs, and not just because Sheets and I share an alma mater. The dynamic receiver out of Slippery Rock caught 76 passes for 1,186 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2023, including a 12 catch, 210 yard performance with three touchdowns against Millersville.

Sheets is one of several rookie wideouts the Saints signed after the 2024 NFL draft along with Jermaine Jackson (Idaho) and Mason Tipton (Yale). But his biggest competition may be fifth-round draft pick Bub Means (Pitt) and veteran journeyman Equanimeous St. Brown, who signed with the Saints just before the 2024 NFL draft. Any of those receivers could be catching passes from Derek Carr next season. Seeing who emerges from the pack will be one of the more entertaining storylines at Saints training camp this summer.

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