Tight end Travis Kelce wasn’t going to play for the Kansas City Chiefs in Thursday night’s final preseason game at the St. Louis Rams, sprained ankle or not. The Chiefs will rest their starters against the Rams.

So the timing of Kelce’s sprained ankle couldn’t be better for the Chiefs. Kelce, who left practice early on Monday because of the injury, should return to practice next week and be available for the Sept. 13 regular-season opener against the Texans in Houston.

"There’s a chance if we were playing a regular-season game (this week) he’d have a pretty good shot at playing," coach Andy Reid said. "It looked like he got his foot caught in the grass and tweaked his ankle a little bit. He’s lucky the grass gave way a little bit, actually."

Good news for Kelce owners as it seems he should be fine with a couple of weeks off before the start of the season. Originally reported as a leg injury, it looks like it's a sprained ankle but not the dreaded high ankle sprain.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce left practice early on Monday because of a leg injury. Kelce walked off on his own power, but the extent of the injury is unknown. Trainer Rick Burkholder said the team will have an update on Kelce’s condition on Tuesday.

In Kelce’s absence Monday, the Chiefs turned to veterans Ryan Taylor and Richard Gordon, rookie James O’Shaughnessy and second-year pro Demetrius Harris, who recently returned to practice after overcoming multiple surgeries and a staph infection on his foot.

Kelce, 25, is being counted on to lead the tight end group, since veteran Anthony Fasano was released in February. Kelce caught 67 passes for 862 yards and five touchdowns in 2014.

Chiefs writer Adam Teicher (of ESPN) projects that WR Albert WIlson will start Week 1 over rookie Chris Conley, adding "He came on near the end of his rookie season, recording 12 of his 16 catches in the Chiefs' last four games."

The buzz about Conley has been good, so things have been trending his way, but Teicher believes Wilson has the edge. Conley is a much bigger receiver and has tremendous speed, but the presence of Travis Kelce at tight end makes the Chiefs' WR2 and unappealing fantasy prospect. Remember, the team famously did not throw a touchdown to a receiver during the entire 2014 season.

Throughout OTAs and minicamp, Chris Conley has demonstrated the skills that make him a very intriguing player to watch as the rookie prepares for his first training camp.

Conley could start opposite Jeremy Maclin, but Travis Kelce is the true second option in this offense.

Bengals TE Tyler Eifert was being brought along a little slower mainly because coaches and trainers simply didn't want to run the risk of getting him hurt. He's fully recovered from late-season shoulder surgery, and his dislocated elbow has healed. Still, they wanted to err on the side of caution when it came to putting Eifert in situations where he could fall to the ground stretching for passes. After all, that's how he hurt the shoulder in the first place during the Bengals' very first practice last spring.

Otherwise, yes, Eifert looks healthy. He caught virtually everything thrown his way during open practices, and looked sharp in his routes.

With Jermaine Gresham out of the way, Eifert should be a nice late-round pick provided he can stay healthy. He has good size and speed, and showed pretty good hands as a rookie. He only played about 60 percent of the snaps in 2013, and averaged 0.14 FP (PPR) per snap. Extrapolate the same production to 90 percent of the snaps (which is typical for a starting tight end), and Eifert shouldn't have any problem posting top 15 numbers. With solid improvement, he could very well be this year's Jordan Cameron (2013) or Travis Kelce (2014).

In 2015, Chiefs TE Travis Kelce wants the ball even more and he's making it known on the practice field.

"You're doing things at the line of scrimmage, changing plays with him, (depending on) how they're playing him leverage-wise," quarterback Alex Smith said, per ESPN.com. "He wants a different route so he can get the football. Yesterday in practice, I can hear him make calls at the line of scrimmage because he wants the football.

"Things like that are encouraging. Obviously, he's a tremendous player, but it's so great to kind of see that confidence there on the field, him calling for when he wants the football. As a quarterback, that's encouraging. You want a bunch of guys out there that are feeling good about their matchup and want the football."

Kelce played 54% of the snaps from Week 1 to Week 10, averaging 3.8 catches for 49 yards and 0.44 TD in that span. He played 86% from Week 11 on, posting 4.7 receptions for 61 yards and 0.14 TD over the final seven games of the season. The rise in fantasy points wasn’t as dramatic since his touchdowns didn’t increase with his playing time, but that should rectify itself in 2015. He was the #4 TE in both standard and PPR formats in the final seven weeks of the season and is likely to go in the top 5 at his position in 2015 fantasy drafts.

On the offensive side, the top play was a catch across the middle from tight end Travis Kelce, who leapt up with one hand and was able to snag the ball out the air more than 15 yards down the field. Alex Smith placed the ball between a couple of defenders and Kelce showed the kind of ability that Chiefs fans are excited to see more of in 2015.

Finally, there was one perfect pass from Alex Smith to Jeremy Maclin on a crossing route about 20 yards down the field. Smith threw the ball into an open window that had Maclin coming out of nowhere as he broke open across the field and made the catch. Smith didn’t wait for Maclin to be open before he threw the ball down the field, which showed the kind of trust and timing that these two have developed throughout the offseason.

Smith is a dirt-cheap quarterback option who could provide high-end QB2 numbers if he becomes a bit more aggressive. He’s dangerous as a runner, and given the addition of a bona fide receiver in Maclin, the emergence of Kelce, and the always-dangerous Jamaal Charles, Smith is an unexciting yet (usually) functional fantasy quarterback.

Chiefs WR Jeremy Maclin has foot inflammation and is day to day.

Maclin was the #9 wide receiver in both standard and PPR formats last season, though he faded down the stretch. Now he’ll have Alex Smith as his quarterback and should dominate the targets along with up-and-coming TE Travis Kelce. HC Andy Reid is very familiar with Maclin, so we would expect his transition to be a smooth one, though this is a system downgrade. Maclin averaged 4.6 catches for 61 yards and 0.50 TD (solid WR2-type numbers) from 2010-2012, while playing for Reid. One concern: Chiefs’ WR1 Dwayne Bowe only averaged 6.3 T/G in 2014, while Maclin averaged 9.0 T/G for the Eagles. Maclin is a much better player, so the Chiefs should target him more than they did Bowe, but it’s something to weigh when evaluating his fantasy value.