The Kansas City Chiefs signed tight end Travis Kelce to a two-year contract extension on Monday, which will take Kelce through 2027.
The new deal certainly puts the retirement talk surrounding Kelce to bed for now, but could the Chiefs be biting off more than they can chew by committing to the aging Kelce for a few more seasons?
It’s a legitimate concern given the fact that Kelce is now 34 years old, but general manager Brett Veach thinks the superstar pass-catcher will be just fine.
“Every now and then, you have one of these guys that are outliers — and certainly Travis is one of those players,” Veach said, via Kevin Patra of NFL.com. “It’s funny, it’s not even May yet and today we had a chance to get out there in phase two and guys were out there running around. Travis was the first guy in line, and he looked like he was 28 years old.”
Kelce was still very productive in 2023, hauling in 93 receptions for 984 yards and five touchdowns en route to his ninth straight Pro Bowl appearance. In addition, he became the all-time leader in playoff receptions when he added 32 more to his resume en route to Kansas City’s second straight Super Bowl championship.
“Again, the odds of someone playing this far into their 30s is very low, but it does happen, and it happens with unicorns in the profession, and Travis is one of those,” Veach said. “We’ll certainly celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing even longer. We’ll just have to wait and see, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down. Everyone notices the kind of postseason he had; he just found an extra gear. These special players are always able to find that extra gear and again if anybody can do it, Travis can.”
Kelce, who played his collegiate football at the University of Cincinnati, was selected by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft.
He made his first Pro Bowl in 2015 and went on to post seven straight 1,000-yard seasons between 2016 and 2022. His best year during that span came in 2020, when he set the single-season record for receiving yards by a tight end with 1,416. He also caught 105 passes to go along with 11 touchdowns that year.
We’ll see what Travis Kelce does for an encore in 2024 as the Chiefs look to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
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