Chiefs sign developmental tight end to practice squad

On Monday, former Baylor basketball player Mark Vital Jr. announced on social media that he has signed a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yes... former Baylor basketball player. The 6-foot-5, 250 pound Vital is transitioning to becoming an NFL tight end. Just after final cutdown day, he spent a week on the Seattle Seahawks’ practice squad. Now a week later, Kansas City has taken him on for their practice squad.

The Chiefs are already at their full 16-man complement of practice-squad players, so we should soon expect a corresponding move.

UPDATE 5:30 p.m. Monday: According to Monday’s NFL transaction report, the Chiefs have released wide receiver Maurice Ffrench to make room for Vital on the practice squad roster.

The team already has four tight ends on the active roster: Travis Kelce, Blake Bell, Noah Gray and Jody Fortson. So this shouldn’t be seen as anything but an opportunity to see if there’s a chance that Vital can be developed into a tight end — just as the Chiefs did with Demetrius Harris, who had only played basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before the Chiefs signed him in 2013.