Fat Guy Touchdowns! We all love them, and this season, there have now been eight instances in which a player over 300 pounds has taken the ball into the end zone. But the only player to do it twice this season is Titans offensive tackle Dennis Kelly, whose one-yard pass from Ryan Tannehill put the Titans up 17-7 on the Chiefs in the first half of the AFC Championship game.
RELATED: Every Fat Guy Touchdown scored in the 2019 season
With the Chiefs selling out against the run in the red zone, Tannehill had an easy open receiver.
BIG MAN TOUCHDOWN! @DennisKelly67 | #TENvsKC pic.twitter.com/4IaWaYqEpZ
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) January 19, 2020
At six-foot-8 and 321 pounds, Kelly became the heaviest player in NFL history to catch a touchdown pass in the postseason.
#Titans tackle Dennis Kelly is the only offensive lineman since 2000 with 2 receiving TD in a season.
He’s the third player to weigh 300+ pounds over that span to do so. The others are Ravens FB/DL Patrick Ricard & HOF DT Warren Sapp.@Titans
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 19, 2020
Kelly’s first touchdown came against the Jaguars in Week 12, and it made up for a previous error.
Earlier in the Titans’ 42-20 eventual win, Kelly gave up a strip-sack of Tannehill to Jacksonville pass-rusher Yannick Ngakoue, which represented the first time Tennessee hadn’t converted in the red zone since Tannehill replaced Marcus Mariota as the starter in Week 7. Kelly at least partially made up for that flub with this one-yard touchdown catch with 13:13 left in the third quarter.
This was the first of a four-touchdown barrage for the Titans in the third quarter, which put the game away. And it put the Titans as the only team on our list with two touchdown passes to the big guys.
To his credit, Kelly gave all the praise to his predecessor.
“I learned from the best,” Kelly said. “(Quessenberry’s) catch was a lot more challenging. “I’ve gone on a couple routes before here and there. But that one was the first one for this. (Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith) and I have always joked about – since I’ve been here – that he would try and get me one. So, it just happened to be it worked out well. It’s a cool feeling.”
We’ll see if the TItans can keep the creativity rolling against a Chiefs offense that has all the quick-strike capability any defense could handle.