For Travis Kelce, this would be a rough way to leave. But that’s the way most gladiators leave the arena.
At least he gets to walk out with Taylor Swift.
On Sunday night at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Kelce left the field looking like the rest of his teammates.
Stunned. Dejected. Distraught.
In Super Bowl LIX, the Philadelphia Eagles annihilated Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs, 40–22, giving them their second Super Bowl victory in franchise history. The Chiefs’ dream of a three-peat ended with a thud, with Kelce limited to six catches and 39 yards on four targets.
After the game, Kelce spoke briefly in the locker room, but not about his future. There was no hint either way, other than to talk about getting better amid the lopsided loss.
Now the questions start about Kelce’s future. Will he play again? Will he chase a fourth ring one more time, or are three enough? Has the Cleveland Heights native fulfilled his urge to dominate on a grass field? Is there another area of his life to start living?
At 35 years old, there’s nothing left to prove. Then again, there hasn’t been for years. He’s a 10-time Pro Bowler, a seven-time All-Pro and a member of the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team.
Kelce is a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. He’s arguably the greatest to ever play his position, with the conversation largely centered around him and Rob Gronkowski. In the postseason, Kelce elevated his game to an entirely different level, catching an NFL-record 178 passes for 2,078 yards and 20 touchdowns across 25 games. For a nonquarterback, it’s the most impressive postseason resumè of any player in league history.
Still, the game calls its greats with a siren song so many can’t resist.
Kelce isn’t the player he once was. He failed to notch 10 yards per reception for the first time in 2024 with just 8.5 YPR on 97 catches. And, yet, he was a worthy Pro Bowler, with only rookie Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders having a better year in the AFC.
He’s not a superstar at this point, but he remains a valuable player to one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to grace a gridiron. Kelce has long been the favorite target of Patrick Mahomes, even when Mahomes had Tyreek Hill running go routes for so many years.
Now, with Xavier Worthy (eight catches, 157 yards, two TDs against Eagles) and Rashee Rice developing into stars, Mahomes might be able to make due without his old standby. Still, Kelce holds a special value, a special place in Kansas City’s offense. He runs routes not in the playbook, creating on the fly while connecting almost telekinetically with Mahomes.
But for Kelce, who has so many options in his eventual post-football life, perhaps it’s time to move on. A lucrative career in television awaits him if he desires it. Should he go that route, he’ll almost assuredly make more money talking about the sport than playing it, and those checks don’t come with waking up feeling like you’ve been in a car crash 20 times per year.
Ultimately, if Kelce does decide to stick around, it’ll probably be only one more year. He’s currently under contract in 2025 for $19.8 million before being slated to hit free agency for what would be the first time in his career.
Not coincidentally, general manager Brett Veach has already extended Kelce’s understudy, Noah Gray, who signed a three-year, $18 million contract during this season to avoid losing him on the market.
Gray has been a quality backup for Kelce, playing more than half the offensive snaps across the past two seasons while totaling 68 catches for 742 yards and seven touchdowns. When Kelce does move on, Kansas City already has its succession plan.
But nobody is in any rush to push Kelce—who has played 12 seasons, all for the Chiefs and become every bit the face of the franchise that Mahomes is—out the door.
But, at some point, every player must look at themselves and decide they’ve had enough. Kelce hasn’t publicly made that choice yet, and might be privately struggling with it as well.
Whatever he decides, the Chiefs will abide. Kelce has earned that.
Should he walk away, he’ll do so with the knowledge the NFL has never seen someone quite like him at the tight end position.
And, quite possibly, never will again.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Travis Kelce Still a Valuable Asset, But His Chiefs’ Future Is Uncertain.
