OVERVIEW
In high school, Kelce was a three sport star, but his best sport was always football. He was a three-year letter winner at quarterback, and earned All-Lake Erie League honors after totaling 2,539 yards of total offense and 31 total touchdowns as a senior. Kelce’s uncle Don Blalock played football at Purdue and grandfather Don Blalock played football at Ohio. Travis is the younger brother of former Cincinnati Bearcats and current Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
In his first year on campus, Travis redshirted. In his redshirt freshman year, Kelce participated in 11 games as the tight end. He caught one pass for three yards. Kelce also played some quarterback, strictly in a Wildcat role. He logged eight carries for 47 yards and two touchdowns. Kelce did not play in 2010, as he was suspended for a violation of team rules. Upon his return in 2011, Kelce caught 13 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns. In his senior season, Kelce put himself on the NFL prospect map, as he caught 45 passes for 722 yards and eight touchdowns. He was selected to the All-Big East first team for his play.
ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS Kelce has an ideal tight end frame. Athletic for his size, with great strength, and the ability to stretch the field vertically. Very physical run blocker, generates power from the lower half, and will move defenders off the ball. Plays with leverage. Wide catching radius, can adjust and make the difficult catch. Tough to bring down after the catch. Light feet, and has lined up in numerous different positions.
WEAKNESSES Suspended for an entire season for violating team rules. Only one season of production. Doesn't have blazing speed. Not a tremendously explosive athlete. Doesn't come out of his breaks all that well.
NFL COMPARISON Rob Gronkowski
BOTTOM LINE Kelce has been a tremendous run blocker throughout his career for the Bearcats, but really elevated his game as a receiver in his senior season. He isn't a tremendous athlete, but he does a lot of things very well. It's a deep tight end class, but Kelce's play suggests that he should be highly sought after. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mcaj22:
Kelce is a good player, but it proves the fact that Tony Moeaki ISNT a good player. that's all.
This pick says nothing about Moeaki. Dorsey plugged holes in FA. He's taking players straight off the board in the draft. We aren't good enough to draft for need. This rebuild is about adding talent. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saul Good:
This pick says nothing about Moeaki. Dorsey plugged holes in FA. He's taking players straight off the board in the draft. We aren't good enough to draft for need. This rebuild is about adding talent.
It says everything about Moeaki. Moeaki is not going to be a 3rd string TE. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Saul Good:
This pick says nothing about Moeaki. Dorsey plugged holes in FA. He's taking players straight off the board in the draft. We aren't good enough to draft for need. This rebuild is about adding talent.
Originally Posted by Dave Lane:
Who on this team is a top 16 QB?
Dude, we had Cassel, we now have a guy that was drafted 1.1 has has been impressive his last couple years. Let's not go overboard just because we didn't draft someone that no one else has drafted yet. [Reply]
if we are in "win games now" mode it might be a good idea to not go into the season with turds like Akeem Jordan/Zac Diles as a starting ILB next to DJ [Reply]
Originally Posted by mcaj22:
if we are in "win games now" mode it might be a good idea to not go into the season with turds like Akeem Jordan/Zac Diles as a starting ILB next to DJ
If we were reaching for need, we would have drafted ILB. There you go. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mcaj22:
if we are in "win games now" mode it might be a good idea to not go into the season with turds like Akeem Jordan/Zac Diles as a starting ILB next to DJ
