The Kansas City Chiefs are signing free agent wide receiver Jason Avant, according to a report from Aaron Wilson. The report states that Avant worked out for the Chiefs on Friday and will sign with the team. This comes a week after the Chiefs reportedly worked out free agent WR Santonio Holmes.
[UPDATE: The Chiefs confirmed this and also put WR AJ Jenkins on IR]
We're still awaiting word from the Chiefs to make this official but the Chiefs trainer says it's happening and Avant's agent says this on Twitter:
Congrats to Jason avant. Said he deserved a better place and he found one.
— Doug Hendrickson (@DHendrickson41) November 21, 2014
No word on who has been released (or placed on IR) to make room for this move.
Avant's name has been floated around before because he is a former Andy Reid draft pick in Philly. The Eagles picked him in the fourth round of the 2006 draft and Avant remained in Philly until 2013. The Chiefs were rumored to be interested in him during free agency last March but no signing occurred. Avant joined the Panthers this offseason but was just released last week. He had 21 catches for 201 yards for the Panthers this season.
We'll see where Avant can contribute. Will he play the slot? At the very least Avant can be a nice third down option with good hands. If he can be that guy, he'll have a role. The Chiefs haven't run as much 12 personnel (three WRs) with both tight ends healthy this season so the Chiefs simply haven't used their receivers as much as they have in the past.
I'm not expecting Avant to be a game changer at receiver. It's good that he's familiar with Reid's system having spent so much time with him in Philly but we're going into Week 13 and the Chiefs haven't gotten much production out of the receivers. I don't expect a 31-year old free agent to change that. Of course I would love to be wrong.
It's Friday and the Chiefs don't play for another nine days. If Reid's offense is similar to what it was under Avant then I wonder if he could be ready to play November 30 against Denver.
It wouldn't be a post about Chiefs receivers if I didn't mention that the Chiefs still do not have a touchdown pass to a receiver.
Read the Philly reaction to this move at Bleeding Green Nation.