Kansas City Chiefs RB Louis Rees-Zammit is already endearing himself to one of his newest teammates in the NFL.
The former Welsh rugby star is attempting to make the jump to the league after an exceptional career abroad. In a recent bit on Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce's New Heights Show podcast, the Chiefs' star tight end provided insight into his conversations with Rees-Zammit behind the scenes. One of those conversations has been centered around a specific play that Travis has been daring enough to try multiple times throughout his career.
"I'm pumped too," Travis said. "He said he's ready for the lateral whenever. . . when we were texting."
"Well, listen, he played rugby," Jason said. "So, he's gonna be ready for that thing."
Travis has been quite liberal with his use of the lateral throughout his NFL career. They've been surprisingly successful, too. Everyone mostly recalls the play from the Buffalo Bills game during the 2023 NFL season that was wiped out by an untimely offensive offside penalty on WR Kadarius Toney.
But there was also this lateral from Kelce to Noah Gray in the "Thursday Night Football" win over the Broncos in 2023.
How about this no-look lateral from Kelce to Jerick McKinnon in 2021?
Who could forget this hook-and-ladder play to RB LeSean McCoy in 2019 against the Lions?
Jason's comments on this situation are spot-on. Rees-Zammit's experience with rugby should have him set up to succeed with this type of play, perhaps better than some of his teammates with an NFL background.
Sure, Rees-Zammit has a long way to go to make the 53-man roster in Kansas City, let alone the practice squad. However, if he does make the squad, you've got to play to his strengths. Knowing Andy Reid, the Chiefs might even specifically design some plays with built-in options to lateral the ball to Rees-Zammit. Given that Kelce is the only one mad enough to try this stuff in a live NFL game regularly, it's reasonable to expect he'll be involved, too.
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