Tennessee football: Former Vols Keller Chryst, Ethan Wolf get NFL chance

Tennessee football 2018 backup Keller Chryst joined the Pittsburgh Steelers minicamp. Former Volunteers tight end Ethan Wolf is with the Carolina Panthers.

Add two more Tennessee football players to NFL minicamp rosters for 2019, according to a report from Patrick Brown of GoVols247. One was a backup quarterback on last year’s team, and the other last played for the Vols in 2017 while getting a look in the pros last year.

Keller Chryst, who joined the Vols in 2018 as a graduate transfer from the Stanford Cardinal, spent the year as a backup to Jarrett Guarantano. However, despite the limited action, he is joining the Pittsburgh Steelers’ minicamp this weekend.

With Joshua Dobbs still on the roster, Chryst makes it two former Vols getting a look from the Steelers. Of course, Dobbs is already on the roster, so Chryst is just trying to get a shot at the pros with some team.

Meanwhile, Wolf is heading to the Carolina Panthers’ minicamp. A tight end on the 2017 Vols, he was a four-year starter for Butch Jones. However, he went undrafted and unsigned and then went to the Tennessee Titans’ minicamp.

After the minicamp, Wolf was signed to the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad during the 2018 season. But he still had not proven anything. As a result, getting another minicamp invite is a big deal for him to get another shot.

Wolf is the second person who last played for Tennessee football in 2017 to get a shot at a minicamp this offseason. Justin Martin was invited to the Kansas City Chiefs’ minicamp back in April.

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Throughout his time in Knoxville, Martin battled injuries and never fully got the chance to show off his athletic abilities in coverage. He suffered a season-ending injury in 2015, was banged up in 2016 and then was part of a team that did not earn any recognition anyway by going 4-8 in 2017.

Of all these players, Wolf is the most proven. However, there were always questions about his pro abilities because of the fact that he didn’t seem athletic enough to be a full-time receiving tight end and was never a great blocker. Nonetheless, he’s staying afloat just enough to continue to get looks from teams.

Chryst, on the other hand, may have gotten a raw deal by not being the starter last year. He didn’t have Guarantano’s arm strength but was much more accurate. And accuracy was the more important factor in Tyson Helton’s offense. Either way, he’ll get a fair shake from Pittsburgh, so keep an eye on what he does.