Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs is one of the best tight ends in the NFL. Indeed, he can reasonably lay claim to being one of the greatest of all time. Kelce comes from prime NFL stock, with his elder brother Jason the starting center for the Philadelphia Eagles. Travis played football, basketball, and baseball in high school, where he was a dual-threat quarterback for Cleveland Heights. In his final season in high school, Kelce passed for 1,523 yards and 21 touchdowns while rushing for another 1,016 with a further ten scores. In his last college season at Cincinnati, now a full-time tight end, Kelce boasted impressive college stats by catching 59 passes for 875 yards and ten touchdowns.
Travis Kelce showed all the athletic traits a modern tight end could wish to have during his predraft process. He posted an 82nd percentile 40 time of 4.66, contributing to a 90th percentile Speed Score. Kelce also demonstrated an incredible wing span, with an 80th percentile Catch Radius of 10.16. Kelce was a third-round draft pick by the Chiefs in 2013. He suffered a knee injury during his rookie campaign that required microfracture surgery. The injury led him to miss almost the entire season. He made his mark in the league starting in his second season. In 2014, he caught 62 passes for 862 yards. This began a sequence of eight straight seasons with at least 800 yards, with more than 1,000 in his last six. No tight end in NFL history has more 1,000-yard seasons than Kelce. Kelce signed a four-year, $57.25 million contract extension with the Chiefs on August 14, 2020, and that season Kelce caught 105 passes for 1,416 yards and a career-high 11 touchdowns. This yardage was enough to set a new single-season record for a tight end in NFL history. Kelce has been efficient as well as productive during this span. He has finished no lower than No.2 in Expected Points Added (EPA) since 2016.
Kelce has made his mark as one of the premier yards after the catch operators at the tight end position throughout his memorable run of dominance. He hasn't ranked lower than No.3 among all tight ends in YAC since 2017. Kelce led all tight ends in 2017 and 2021. Kelce commanded a 22.3 percent target share in 2021 and led all tight ends with 543 routes run. He saw only seven deep balls in 2021, but still finished No.4 in air yards with 971. Just to show that not even Kelce is perfect, he had six drops in 2021, "good" for No.6 among all tight ends. Kelce has attempted three passes in the regular season, a nod to his old position. He has one completion for four yards and a touchdown.
Kelce performed as a top tight end before 2018, but his partnership with Patrick Mahomes propelled him into another tier. Kelce averages 4.9 receptions for 62 yards and 13.3 PPR points per game with other players under center. With Mahomes at quarterback, Kelce has posted 6.4 grabs for 82.6 yards and a whopping 18.2 PPR points per outing.
Just to show that Kelce is no mere regular season compiler, he has been a historic producer in the playoffs. He has seven career games in the postseason with 100-yards or more. The only player with more such games is Jerry Rice.
