Jared Wiley reflects on injury recovery heading into the new season

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Jared Wiley spoke with reporters after practice on Monday at Missouri Western State University. He reflected on his long mental and physical recovery after his 2024 injury as he headed into the new season. "We'll watch like last year's preseason, or I'll go back and watch camp from last year, and I'm like, God, that looked terrible, dude," said Wiley, "Like it was awful. So definitely feeling like myself again." The 25-year-old recorded one reception for seven yards during the 2024 season, spending most of his time on special teams for Kansas City. He suffered a torn ACL that prematurely ended his rookie season. Last season, he appeared in only five games, finishing with one catch for four yards. "I had a lot of stiffness last year. Still was dealing with some swelling and stuff like that. I would say the main thing was mentally trusting yourself," said Wiley. Being able to do OTAs this offseason was a huge help. Just kind of working through a bunch of that stuff, and then, by the time the season gets here, you've ripped these things so many times that you don't even think about it anymore. Whereas last year I felt like I was thinking about a lot. Like before, I was going in and out of breaks, before I was doing stuff." Wiley earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in 2023 for TCU. He had 47 receptions for 520 yards and eight touchdowns. He's been viewed as a potential high-volume red-zone target but hasn't been frequently available on the field. "A lot of stuff in the offseason that I did this year. I was able to actually work out instead of rehab this off-season, so that was big," said Wiley. "Again, with some of my guys, route running, you know, weightlifting stuff like that. I was even doing Pilates, like literally whatever I could do to try to work through some of those growing pains again." Wiley finished with one catch for nine yards in the preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams. This article originally appeared on Chiefs Wire: Jared Wiley reflects on injury recovery heading into the new season