With the arrival of full-team training camp on Sunday, all Kansas City Chiefs veterans have reported to St. Joseph, Missouri and are ready to get to work. One face won't be on the Missouri Western State University campus, however, after previously being present.
Per Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest on Sunday morning, tight end Gerrit Prince has been waived. In a corresponding move, the club has signed Izaiah Gathings to round out the position group and fill that 90-man (or 91-man, for Kansas City) roster spot.
Prince, 26, is a Kansas native and joined the Chiefs last August on a practice squad basis. He didn't appear in a single game, later ending the year on the practice squad injured list with a foot issue. The Shawnee Mission Northwest graduate was re-signed on a reserve/futures contract in the spring, paving the way for him to potentially compete throughout the offseason.
Unfortunately for Prince, that journey appears to be getting cut short. Earlier this week, he was spotted at training camp in a walking boot and didn't practice with the team thereafter. That seems to have led to the "waived" designation, also setting the table for the reunion with Gathings.
For Gathings, this is familiar territory. The Middle Tennessee State product has been around the Chiefs franchise for a while, having spent a year-plus with the club off and on. Last preseason, he appeared in three games and was targeted twice in the passing game. Hauling in one pass for five yards, he didn't produce enough to make the eventual 53-man roster. The 23-year-old was waived back in May and wound up with the Pittsburgh Steelers, although his return to Kansas City comes just weeks later.
Regardless of who holds this spot on the Chiefs' tight end depth chart, the top four seems to be set in stone. Travis Kelce, Noah Gray, Jared Wiley and Irv Smith Jr. are the top options of the group, with the latter two perhaps not in a predetermined order just yet. Prince was battling it out with Baylor Cupp as organizational depth, which is now the role Gathings will fulfill.
But with a need for bodies at training camp, bringing back an old friend makes for a smart pickup by Kansas City.
