Originally Posted by carcosa:
Based entirely on this clip I would bet money that he's done after this season. I think he'll turn it on in the playoffs and give us at least one last vintage Kelce performance, but whether we three-peat or not, he's getting old (he's almost as old as me!!!) and he has other interests to pursue and it feels like it's time. Just hope Beach and Reid have a good plan to replace him!
Rice is already doing Kelce things in year 2. I think he's the guy. [Reply]
I don't understand why people are freaking out about this. Just to have a talking point or something? This is prob Kelce's last or second to last season. These early season games don't matter. We know we will be in the playoffs. They are just limiting how much they force balls his way so they can keep his body healthy and ready for the post season. They are instead focusing on continuing to develop Rashee Rice so that when Kelce does retire, Mahomes will have that same type of trust and connection with Rice that he did/does with Kelce. This is Veach and Reid playing chess, a couple years ahead, not checkers. Calm down [Reply]
Originally Posted by kozzman555:
I don't understand why people are freaking out about this. Just to have a talking point or something? This is prob Kelce's last or second to last season. These early season games don't matter. We know we will be in the playoffs. They are just limiting how much they force balls his way so they can keep his body healthy and ready for the post season. They are instead focusing on continuing to develop Rashee Rice so that when Kelce does retire, Mahomes will have that same type of trust and connection with Rice that he did/does with Kelce. This is Veach and Reid playing chess, a couple years ahead, not checkers. Calm down
This.
Kelce has been doing this so long it's basically a preseason game for him. [Reply]
Lol. He was getting open and setting people free.
He will be fine. Patrick has new weapons. As soon as they double rice he is back to receptions. Though I doubt he hits a 1000 again unless he goes off a couple games. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
If Travis is washed and being phased out then Veach royally screwed up with his contract. 17 mil this year and 12.5 next year guranteed.
Normally I might agree, but Travis has been so criminally underpaid for a HOF career that has been all at KC, I can't get worked up about this one. [Reply]
Where's Travis Kelce? Chiefs star's disappearing act isn't what it seems
Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY
ATLANTA – It’s become such a thing with the Kansas City Chiefs: Where’s Taylor Swift?
The NFL surely can’t get enough of the buzz attached to the global icon and her legion of Swifties, against the backdrop of her romantic connection with one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history. The cameo shots of Swift watching her beau from a private box, bonding with Brittany Mahomes and cheering wildly over big plays is, well, cute.
Yet football purists have come lately with another relevant question as it pertains to the back-to-back Super Bowl champs: Whatever happened to Travis Kelce?
Spoiler!
Relax, everybody. Even with Kelce putting up pedestrian numbers during the 3-0 start for the Chiefs, this is hardly a critical emergency that threatens the bid for a three-peat – at least not yet.
Sure, if you’re a fantasy football owner with Kelce on your squad, you may be in panic mode. In three games, Kelce has logged eight catches for 69 yards. He’s still looking for his first touchdown of the season.
During Kansas City’s tight, 22-17 victory against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night, Kelce was targeted on five passes from his running buddy, Patrick Mahomes, and caught four passes for 30 yards. That’s undoubtedly not the stat sheet production we’re used to seeing from Kelce, 34, who in the previous six seasons averaged 100 catches and tallied 52 touchdowns.
On a critical third-and-2 early in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, Mahomes threw over to middle to No. 87 and Jessie Bates III, one of the NFL’s best playmaking safeties, ripped the football out of Kelce's clutches. Incomplete.
Still, no need to panic.
“Just living the dream, bro,” Kelce said when approached in the locker room afterward.
Then came some boorish Chiefs security guard, executing a seal block that would have been textbook for a power sweep but in this case facilitated a violation of the NFL’s stated – but poorly administered – media policy that maintains players are available after games for comment. The security guard cleared a path for Kelce to scoot out the door without weighing in on the nail-biting victory. Since Kelce’s profile has gone to new heights (pun intended) with his connection to Swift, he has routinely dodged postgame questions.
What a shame. Kelce, a 12th-year pro, has been good for engaging insight for so long, podcast or not.
In any event, Mahomes broke it down in Football 101 terms. What’s up with Kelce?
“It’s crazy,” Mahomes said. “Teams still...the respect factor they have for Travis is unreal. It’s well deserved."
"We’re calling a lot of plays for Travis. It’s like two or three people are going to him. He understands. That’s the great thing about him. He wants to impact the game. He wants to win at the end of the day.”
Although Kelce’s impact on the stat sheet didn’t please certain fantasy team owners, his presence within the game remains very real. Kelce played 54 of the 74 offensive snaps on Sunday night (77%), a rate exceeded only by the 100% count from Mahomes and the five offensive line starters. And while many measure his effectiveness by the passing game stats, Kelce’s immense value comes with his skill as a complete tight end able to play a punishing role as a blocker in the running game.
Hey, the catches will come. Remember how it flowed last season, when Kelce missed the opener, then logged 17 catches in his first three games and didn’t score a touchdown in the final six regular-season contests. During the playoffs, though, he had four monster games – including an 11-catch, 116-yard output in the AFC title game at Baltimore, with a sweet TD catch – that were essential to the Chiefs' mission to become repeat champs.
So, just wait. The Chiefs’ passing game has been triggered by the emergence of second-year receiver Rashee Rice (who had his second 100-yard contest of the season on Sunday night and has posted TDs the past two games) while first-round pick Xavier Worthy has shown promising flashes. Yet Kelce’s breakout is still a major threat.
“I’m going to do my best to keep feeding him the ball whenever he’s there, but I think the more Rashee makes plays, the more we’re able to run the ball, the more we can get Worthy involved, that’s going to open Travis us more,” Mahomes said. “People are really emphasizing trying to take him away, and it’s getting other guys open.”
Sounds like the Chiefs, who keep winning while trying to find their stride, have the type of “problem” with Kelce’s limited stat sheet production that most teams would beg for.
Originally Posted by kozzman555:
I don't understand why people are freaking out about this. Just to have a talking point or something? This is prob Kelce's last or second to last season. These early season games don't matter. We know we will be in the playoffs. They are just limiting how much they force balls his way so they can keep his body healthy and ready for the post season. They are instead focusing on continuing to develop Rashee Rice so that when Kelce does retire, Mahomes will have that same type of trust and connection with Rice that he did/does with Kelce. This is Veach and Reid playing chess, a couple years ahead, not checkers. Calm down
He was one of the best players in the league and has been invisible. We don't know how he'll be in the playoffs, the idea that he is guaranteed to just turn it on again like last year is wishful thinking. It's been 2 years of obvious decline while the offense has not been able to get production out of anyone other than Rice.
This is not chess, just a guy no longer performing. [Reply]