Chiefs place OL Kyle Long on PUP, TE Nick Keizer on non-football injury list
The Kansas City Chiefs made a few more transactions on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s initial training camp practice.
According to the NFL’s official transaction report, the Chiefs have placed OL Kyle Long on the physically unable to perform list and TE Nick Keizer on the non-football injury list.
Long, who suffered a leg injury during OTAs, is expected to miss training camp with his injury. A move to the PUP list was expected given the expected duration of his injury. He was placed on the active/PUP list, which means he’ll continue to count against the 90-man offseason roster. He can be activated at any point throughout training camp with this designation, which means if he’s ahead of schedule on his injury, he’ll be able to practice and play with the team.
Keizer’s placement on the active/non-football injury list comes as a bit of surprise. The veteran tight end hadn’t been absent from OTAs or mandatory minicamp. Heading to the non-football injury list and not the PUP list suggests that he suffered his injury training away from the team. With an extremely competitive tight end group this season, missing any significant period of time could be a big deal for Keizer and any shot he had to make the team.
If Long and Keizer remain on these respective lists through 53-man roster cuts, the team will have to choose to activate the players or send them to reserve versions of each list. If they are sent to the reserve versions, they’d both be required to miss six weeks of the NFL season before they can return to practice and be activated to the 53-man roster. If they aren’t healthy after those six weeks, the team can then choose to send them to injured reserve.
The Chiefs now have two players on both the non-football injury list and PUP list, with a total of four players who are injured counting against the 90-man offseason roster. Long and Keizer join DE Malik Herring and DB Armani Watts.
In addition to these two transactions, the Chiefs placed WR Chris Finke on injured reserve. He was waived with an injury designation on Monday, clearing waivers and reverting to the injured reserve list. The receiver can now choose to heal up and return to action when he’s ready or the team can come to an agreement on an injury settlement and he can go pursue another opportunity.
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