KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Travis Kelce ended the 2024 NFL season with profession lows in yards and touchdowns — 823 and three, respectively. He regarded like he could be nearing the top of one of many best tight finish careers in NFL historical past. At 35 years previous, a sophisticated age for his place, he typically regarded 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 sport into the AFC Championship Sport.
“We have all seen it over the previous few years,” common supervisor Brett Veach stated. “There are intervals all through the season the place you are like, ‘This could be it.’ However when the video games are an important and the lights are the brightest, he finds it someplace.”
With Kelce turning 36 in October, the Chiefs count on that in 2025 he’ll nonetheless be the participant they know nicely.
“The good ones know learn how to discover it,” Veach stated. “They know the place it is buried, and so they know learn how to entry it. They usually cannot entry it at that age week in and week out, however once they want it, they know learn how to discover it.”
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Nonetheless, the Chiefs try to steer themselves away from needing Kelce the best way they’ve in current seasons by planning to shift a few of the receiving burden to others.
At large receiver, they need to see the return of Rashee Rice, who was main the league in receptions by means of three video games final yr earlier than a Week 4 knee harm ended his season. Additionally they re-signed Hollywood Brown and expect 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 will probably be taking part in beneath the ultimate yr of a two-year, $34.25 million contract extension he signed final yr.
“I count on Travis to be Travis,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes stated. “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 quick this final yr. Then, I feel 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 huge impact on our soccer crew, so I count on him to play at a excessive degree after which be an excellent 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 one more 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 totally different. The truth is, 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 “probably not feeling” the necessity to in the reduction of on Kelce’s taking part in time.
“It’s going to be much like final yr,” Reid stated. “… He is in nice form proper now, so I feel 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 might be the unhealthy man in some circumstances there, if wanted. If I feel it is catching as much as him slightly bit, I will pull off and put him the place he must be. Aside from that, he hasn’t confirmed me any of that but. He is executed 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 determination in comparatively quick order and stated it wasn’t a troublesome alternative and that he had extra good soccer in him.
He indicated he needed to place himself by means of what he known as a extra rigorous offseason exercise schedule than final yr.
“That call for me must be made again in March or early April,” Kelce stated. “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 ability 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 to date we’re on monitor.”
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Even when his different numbers weren’t as much as Kelce’s customary final yr, he nonetheless caught 97 passes, tied for the fourth-highest complete 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 probably 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 stated. “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 at the least the occasional eyes of major defenders simply due to his title 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 individuals round him higher.”
