A year ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were coming off perhaps their least impressive regular season of the Patrick Mahomes era. In a campaign filled with struggles and inconsistency, the reigning Super Bowl champions looked like anything but a championship contender. On offense, specifically, Mahomes wasn’t quite himself and tight end Travis Kelce had his worst year in nearly a decade.
In the postseason, however, both players came alive. Kelce turned the clock all the way back by hauling in 32 passes on 37 targets for 355 yards and three touchdowns. He capped off his age-34 season by helping propel Kansas City to a Super Bowl LVIII win, prompting the club to set that as the benchmark for his 2024-25 production.
It’s safe to say that 16 regular-season games later, that wasn’t the case. Even on four more receptions this time around, Kelce’s per-catch numbers cratered to a career-low 8.5-yard mark. Despite that, a couple of weeks of rest might be just what the doctor ordered to get the best version of Kelce in January.
The future Hall of Fame tight end certainly believes so. On a recent episode of “The Pat McAfee Show,” Kelce provided a brief update that should terrify whichever teams the Chiefs face in this year’s playoff run.
“I’m fired up, man,” Kelce said. “I’m feeling 22 all over again, baby. Let’s go! Fire me up. I’m ready to rock and roll, man. The biggest thing for me is trusting Coach (Andy) Reid. He’s been doing this a long, long time. When it comes to getting the bye week, we’ve had a few of them over the course of my career. For me, it’s just making sure we put the pads on at least one time throughout the week, make sure we get our physicality in and get that in check, play with some low pad level throughout the week. On top of that, put your feet up, man. Watch some football and get ready for some playoff action.”
Perhaps Week 17’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers is a fair bar to set for Kelce. In that Christmas Day outing, he logged eight receptions for 84 yards and his first touchdown in well over a month. His 10.5 yard-per-touch average was his highest since Week 4 of the season against the Los Angeles Chargers. It was the healthiest and most mobile he’d looked in quite some time.
In the aftermath of that game, Kelce seemed at peace with where his level of play was at late in the year.
“I mean, I’m happy with my role right now,” Kelce said. “I’m out here helping this team win football games. We’ve got a lot of good tight ends, we’ve got a lot of wide receivers that are getting open that are doing great things with the football. Pat’s (Mahomes) playing at his best going into the playoffs. It’s a little bit different than others, but it’s still a blast coming in every single day.”
With Mahomes rested, DeAndre Hopkins implemented into the offense and the Xavier Worthy-Marquise “Hollywood” Brown duo optimized, Kelce has some help. He’s in a perfect spot to add to his postseason legend which, as everyone knows, is already historically elite.
