When tight end Irv Smith Jr. joined Alabama in 2016, coach Nick Saban had led the Crimson Tide to four national championships in the previous seven seasons.
Smith joins the Kansas City Chiefs under coach Andy Reid, who has led the NFL team to three Super Bowl triumphs in the last five seasons.
Alabama appeared in the national championship game in each of Smith’s three seasons with the Tide, winning the title in his second year.
Smith hopes to achieve similar outcomes in Kansas City after joining as a free agency last week.
“It’s crucial,” Smith said of the two programs’ championship history. “The standard is set. I knew what the standard was when I went to Alabama, and I know what it is now that I’m in Chiefs Kingdom. I take it seriously, and when it came to making a decision, I wanted this opportunity. It was something I wasn’t afraid of. “I am attacking it.”
Smith was drawn to the Chiefs’ championship standard, despite the fact that he will not be the team’s top tight end.
Kansas City has two tight ends under contract for 2024: four-time All-Pro Travis Kelce, who had 93 receptions for 984 yards and five touchdowns in the 2023 regular season and another 32 receptions, 355 receiving yards, and three touchdowns in the playoffs, and Noah Grey, who had 28 receptions for 305 yards and two touchdowns in 2023.
“With Kansas City, the history that they have with the tight ends,” Smith said, “running a lot of 12 personnel, 13 personnel, employing multiple tight-end sets and being able to get behind a player like Travis Kelce and learn from him and pick his brain on anything. Just win football games. That is my favourite thing to do: be a member of winning teams and help them win, and I will do anything I can to assist this squad win games and thrive.”
Smith began his NFL career working alongside a Pro Bowl tight end.
Smith joined Minnesota in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft and caught 66 passes for 676 yards and seven touchdowns in his first two seasons alongside Kyle Rudolph.
Smith praised Kansas City’s winning culture, citing the success of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and coach Reid. “I’ve been around winners my whole life, and I just feel like this was the best opportunity, the best fit, and somewhere I can succeed and showcase my ability.”
“I envision myself providing some energy to the place, some juice. I see myself making an impact in the run game, the pass game, and in whatever manner I can help the team. But I consider myself a versatile player who can make many plays on both sides of the field. And with Travis and Noah Grey, we’re employing 12 and 13 personnel to figure out how we work best together. At the end of the day, we’ll be opening up to one other and feeding off of one another. I’m a selfless guy, and I’ve been on a lot of large 12- or 13-person teams, and I believe that’s where I excel.”
Smith believes Reid’s inventive offence will bring the best out of him.
“It’s definitely exciting,” Smith said. “Watching the Chiefs, the games, they’re electric. Coach Andy Reid is involving his playmakers in the plays he calls on the field. You can count on the team to do whatever it takes to win games. Those trick plays, those are always fun because it keeps the defense on their toes and they don’t know what to expect type of thing. And also, it gets to highlight some players in certain things that they usually wouldn’t be getting to do.”
In 2021, a torn meniscus caused Smith to miss Minnesota’s entire season.
In 2022, Smith sustained an ankle injury in a 34-26 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Oct. 30 and missed the next nine games. Smith returned for the regular-season finale, then played in the Vikings’ 31-24 loss to the New York Giants in the first round of the postseason in his last game for Minnesota.
Last offseason, Smith joined the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency, but in 12 games, he had 18 receptions for 115 yards and one touchdown. After catching 36 passes as a rookie in 2019, Smith’s reception total has declined in every season of his career.
In 2023, Smith missed Cincinnati’s third and fourth games because of a hamstring injury. Smith started the first five games he played for the Bengals. But he started only once after that, and by the end of the year, his role was such that Cincinnati designated him as a game-day inactive for the final three contests.
Smith comes to the Chiefs feeling good.
“This has really been the first offseason for me in the past two years where I’ve been fully healthy,” Smith said, “so this offseason, it’s been super crucial in terms of being able to focus on what I need to focus on and getting better and just going through an offseason with that mindset of just working on my body, working on everything to be 100 percent when the team needs me. That’s my main goal is just to be 100 percent as much as I can and be available.”
Smith joined Kansas City for a one-year, $1,292,500 contract that included $384,000 of guaranteed money.
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