Tampa Bay Buccaneers Tight End Ko Kieft, who is from Sioux Center has been place on injured reserve. A leg injury will cost Kieft the remainder of the 2025 season.
Kieft’s fourth campaign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has come to a premature end after he suffered a season-ending leg injury on Sunday in the team’s win over the New York Jets.
While he was rarely targeted in the passing game (eight career receptions on 15 targets), he is a rugged blocker who the Buccaneers have used in that capacity at multiple spots in their offensive formation.
Buc’s head coach Todd Bowles commented on the severity of Kieft’s injury, and what he provided to the team “Ko is on [Injured Reserve] – he broke his leg. He was probably our toughest player [or] one of our toughest three players on the team because he was our tone-setter, offensively. He did a lot of things in the room from a blocking standpoint. So, we have to try and run the ball different ways without him. That was a huge loss for us.”
Kieft was a sixth-round pick (number 218 overall) in the 2022 draft out of Minnesota. He played in 53 of a possible 54 games before his injury on Sunday, logging 19 starts.
