Chiefs announce tight end Blake Bell had hip surgery

On Tuesday, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid announced that tight end Blake Bell had surgery on his injured hip flexor. Bell injured his hip during the team’s first preseason game against the Chicago Bears. He has not practiced since then.

Last week, Reid revealed the injury occurred on his touchdown catch.

Following the score and injury, Bell tried to stay in the game during the Chiefs’ next offensive drive, but finally had to check out.

Reid said that he did not believe Bell would return to the team quickly, but he was not ready to commit to Bell being placed on injured reserve.

“We’ll see on that,” said Reid. “We’re kind of throwing some things around right now.”

The Chiefs’ tight end room is led by Travis Kelce. Bell has served the club as its primary backup in two of the last three seasons, including on Kansas City’s Super Bowl LIV championship squad. Beyond Bell, the Chiefs have Jody Fortson and second-year player Noah Gray, who profiles as the best fit to replace Bell when it comes to run and pass blocking.

“Noah’s done a nice job with it,” said Reid. “You don’t want to happen to anybody, but that position, we at least have some capable guys in there that could do it — but Noah’s worked very hard at that and he’s done a nice job with it.”

In 16 games last season, Bell had nine catches for 87 yards. The former high school and college quarterback also notched four first downs on the tight end sneak — the Reid method of protecting the knees of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.