KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce ended the 2024 NFL season with profession lows in yards and touchdowns — 823 and three, respectively. He seemed like he is perhaps nearing the tip of one of many best tight finish careers in NFL historical past. At 35 years previous, a complicated age for his place, he typically seemed common on the sector — apart from a classic Kelce stretch of video games in the course of the center of the season.
Then he caught seven passes for 117 yards and a landing within the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ divisional playoff win over the Houston Texans, single-handedly dragging an in any other case torpid passing recreation into the AFC Championship Recreation.
“We have all seen it over the previous couple of years,” common supervisor Brett Veach mentioned. “There are durations all through the season the place you are like, ‘This is perhaps it.’ However when the video games are crucial and the lights are the brightest, he finds it someplace.”
With Kelce turning 36 in October, the Chiefs anticipate that in 2025 he’ll nonetheless be the participant they know effectively.
“The good ones know discover it,” Veach mentioned. “They know the place it is buried, and so they know entry it. And so they cannot entry it at that age week in and week out, however after they want it, they know discover it.”
Better of NFL Nation
• Cam Ward navigating bounce from faculty to NFL• Cowboys achieve inspiration from previous stars• Sweat embracing management function with Cardinals• What are NFL gamers studying this summer time?• What’s Mark Murphy’s legacy as Packers CEO?
Nonetheless, the Chiefs are attempting to steer themselves away from needing Kelce the best way they’ve in current seasons by planning to shift a number of the receiving burden to others.
At extensive receiver, they need to see the return of Rashee Rice, who was main the league in receptions via three video games final yr earlier than a Week 4 knee damage ended his season. Additionally they re-signed Hollywood Brown and predict a bounce in manufacturing from Xavier Worthy, who caught 59 passes as a rookie final season. At tight finish, the Chiefs even have Noah Grey, who final season set profession highs in catches (40), yards (437) and touchdowns (5).
That does not imply the expectations are minimal for Kelce, who can be taking part in underneath the ultimate yr of a two-year, $34.25 million contract extension he signed final yr.
“I anticipate Travis to be Travis,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes mentioned. “Clearly, the play on the sector’s going to be excessive. He will go on the market with the mentality that we’re attempting to win the Tremendous Bowl this yr with us falling brief this final yr. Then, I believe greater than something, it is the management that he brings to the constructing each single day. How he leads by instance and the way he leads vocally, it is a big effect on our soccer staff, so I anticipate him to play at a excessive degree after which be a fair higher chief.
“From what I’ve seen … he is able to go. He is been placing within the work this offseason, and he is excited for an additional probability to make a run at it.”
Kelce has all the time performed a excessive share of the snaps for the Chiefs, and final yr was no completely different. In truth, he performed extra snaps (950) and was within the lineup for the next share of the Chiefs’ offensive performs (81.8%) than in any season since 2019.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid indicated he is unlikely to alter plans for Kelce, saying he is “not likely feeling” the necessity to in the reduction of on Kelce’s taking part in time.
“It’s going to be just like final yr,” Reid mentioned. “… He is in nice form proper now, so I believe he is trying ahead to getting going.
“I all the time watch him. I all the time keep watch over him. I do know he is getting older. He would not know he is getting older, however I do. I will be the unhealthy man in some instances there, if wanted. If I believe it is catching as much as him a bit bit, I am going to pull off and put him the place he must be. Apart from that, he hasn’t confirmed me any of that but. He is finished very well with it.”
Kelce took a while after the Chiefs’ Tremendous Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles to determine whether or not he needed to play one other season, his twelfth within the NFL. However he made his choice in comparatively brief order and mentioned it wasn’t a troublesome selection and that he had extra good soccer in him.
He indicated he needed to place himself via what he referred to as a extra rigorous offseason exercise schedule than final yr.
“That call for me must be made again in March or early April,” Kelce mentioned. “You set the tone and put a routine collectively that will get your mindset and will get your physique [right] and actually from there you can begin to tweak your talent set. So it is simply every little thing concerned. You must evolve each single yr in all phases of the sport. So that you already know that began again in March and thus far we’re on monitor.”
Your League, Your Guidelines
Create a league and customise league dimension, scoring and guidelines to play within the league you wish to play in.
Create a league in the present day!
Even when his different numbers weren’t as much as Kelce’s normal final yr, he nonetheless caught 97 passes, tied for the fourth-highest whole of his profession. He nonetheless ranked fifth in yardage amongst tight ends, behind Brock Bowers, Trey McBride, George Kittle and Jonnu Smith. However that occurred throughout a season when Rice and Brown performed in solely a small fraction of the video games.
In the event that they keep wholesome, together with Worthy and Grey, Kelce’s streak of main the Chiefs in catches and yards will possible come to an finish at three. That would not essentially imply the Chiefs have a look at his season as a disappointment.
“His numbers will not be the identical,” Veach mentioned. “You must acknowledge … that he is older. He is not 28 years previous. However every little thing runs extra effectively when that man is on the market. He is nonetheless going to demand the eye or no less than the occasional eyes of major defenders simply due to his identify and his legacy.
“Having Travis on the sector makes us higher. I do not know if I have a look at it by way of expectations for yardage or touchdowns or catches. When he is on the sector, he makes us higher. He is additionally a man who makes the folks round him higher.”
