photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Jared Casey talks with the media prior to the NFL football team's rookie minicamp in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, May 4, 2025.

Among a reported 87 players taking part in the Kansas City Chiefs’ minicamp over the weekend were a couple who were quite familiar with the Chiefs’ facilities.

Former Kansas tight end Jared Casey, for one, played four games at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium with the Jayhawks during the 2024 season. In one of those, against Houston on Oct. 19, he even caught a pair of touchdowns.

“It’s kind of come full circle,” Casey told reporters on Sunday at the minicamp.

The Plainville native, a former walk-on fullback for KU, is now looking to catch on in the NFL, whatever position he may have to play at 6 feet tall and 245 pounds. The Chiefs’ minicamp is his first step toward a professional opportunity, and “just being able to go out and wear a Chiefs jersey and Chiefs helmet, it’s kind of just a dream come true,” he said.

“Obviously I’m shorter than most guys, I may not be as big as some guys but obviously that’s been like that my whole life, I’ve been told that my whole life,” he said. “I don’t really care what anybody else says, I know what I bring to the table and I truly believe that.”

Casey’s tenure at KU actually predates the Lance Leipold-led rebuild with which he became so closely identified. He arrived in 2020 and existed in relative obscurity until a variety of injuries to tight ends and fullbacks ensured that he was the one on the field to catch Jalon Daniels’ game-winning two-point conversion at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Nov. 13, 2021, lifting the Jayhawks to one of their biggest victories in program history over the Longhorns.

From then on, Casey was less a one-hit wonder and more a consistent hitmaker as a featured player at tight end over the next few seasons. In four years, he caught 53 passes for 635 yards and 10 touchdowns, and often seemed to be in the right place at the right time, like for a key third-down conversion at Iowa State in 2023. His most productive year was 2022, but in 2024, his final season at KU, he served as the Jayhawks’ starting tight end.

“A lot of us that came in that 2020 class, we had that vision that we were going to flip it around and we all stayed and did that,” Casey recalled.

Like quite a few of his fellow program changers, Casey got a professional opportunity at the end of April, though he had to wait through the entire 2025 NFL Draft before the Chiefs invited him to camp (along with his multi-year teammate, safety Marvin Grant).

“I was just praying and hopeful that I would get a call,” Casey said.

The opportunity with the Chiefs, which was set to conclude on Monday, might not be Casey’s only chance at the pros. His brother Justin previously told the Journal-World that if Kansas City didn’t ultimately sign Casey, he could potentially get a chance to attend the Miami Dolphins’ minicamp beginning Friday.

“This is a surreal experience and there’s a lot of guys here competing for spots on the team, same as I am,” Casey said on Sunday. “You kind of got to have that in the back of your mind, like, what is it after football? And I mean, football will come to an end eventually one day and I’ve thought about what I want to do, but hopefully this sticks for a while.”

photo by: AP Photo/Colin E. Braley

Kansas City Chiefs tight ends Jared Casey (45) and Jake Roberts (85) take part in the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, May 4, 2025.