Travis Kelce has reached a new deal with the Kansas City Chiefs that made him the highest paid tight end in the NFL. The future Hall of Famer will be in Kansas City for at least two more seasons until his age 36 season.
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach is confident that Kelce will continue to play at a high level for the next two years – maybe even longer.
“Every once in a while you have one of those guys that is an outlier — and certainly Travis (Kelce) is one of those players,” Veach said Monday. “It’s funny, it’s not even May yet and today we got a chance to go out there in Phase 2 and the guys were running around. Travis was the first guy in line and he looked 28 years old.
“Again, the chances of someone playing that far into their 30s are very low, but it happens, and it happens with the unicorns in the profession, and Travis is one of them.”
Kelce had 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns last season, his lowest yardage total since 2015 and lowest touchdown total since 2019. The nine-time Pro Bowl tight end was also in his season of 34 years old, which leads some to wonder if Kelce was a starter. to decrease.
The playoffs changed that narrative. Kelce finished with 32 catches for 355 yards and three touchdowns as the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl title in five years. This included 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown in the AFC Championship Game, and nine catches for 93 yards in Super Bowl LVIII.
There’s still some history to be made for Kelce as he climbs the record books on the all-time tight end list. Kelce has 11,328 receiving yards in his career, just 514 yards shy of passing Antonio Gates (11,841) for third all-time. Kelce is 3,800 receiving yards behind passing Tony Gonzalez (15,127) for the most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history.
The Chiefs believe he can make it happen. Kelce shows no signs of slowing down.
“We’re definitely going to celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing for even longer,” Veach said. “We’ll just have to wait and see, but he hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Everyone notices the kind of playoff run he’s had; he just found an extra gear. These special players are always able to find that extra gear and again if anyone can do it, Travis can.”
