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 ThaVirus:
Kelce was known as a blocking TE coming out of Cincinnati, though, wasn't he?
Anybody that watched Kelce coming out and thought he was just a blocking TE is fucking reeruned.
His YAC ability was fantastic, the ability to stretch the field vertically was apparent. He showed he was much more than just a blocker his senior season. [Reply]
And this isn't just revisionist history on my end:
Originally Posted by staylor26:
Kelce is a great TE prospect that showed a unique ability to gain YAC and has above average athleticism for the position. I don't know what you mean by game breaker because it doesn't get much better. The guy had 722 yards and 8 TD's his senior season with an average of 16 yards a catch. He's an all-around TE, but that does t mean he's just an average receiver. There is a reason he was compared to guys like Rob Gronkowski coming out.
As far as most beloved Chiefs players by the fans, I don't know how the town reacted to the great players from the 1960s, but Kelce has got be in the top 3 all time right? I can't think of another player from the Marty/DV/Pioli era that comes close except for DT. [Reply]
