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:
Nothing wrong with a lil necro bump to remind everyone that we don't know everything lol
Personally, I tend to stay out of draftee threads because I don't watch college ball. I won't have an informed opinion other than "I feel like we probably didn't need a player at this position" or "I'd have prefer a player at another position".
I was annoyed for many years about the 2013 draft given the Fisher 1.1 pick, but if you just pretend like we drafted Kelce at 1.1 and took Fisher in the 3rd round, it's not so bad.
Outside of those two, that was a shit draft, though. We got a GOAT TE, a plus LT, and a decent RB2/KR. Other than that it was Staylor's great white hope in Catapano (scrub), Eric Kush, a LB who never amounted to shit (Nico Johnson), and a dude who literally got juked so badly that he broke his ankles (Sanders Commings) :-) Jamaal Charles ended that man's whole career with one cut. I sooooo wish we had that move on film!
Originally Posted by BleedingRed:
Speaks for yourself
Lord I hated that guy...
I did like the Kelce pick, though. Everytime one of these threads gets dug up I tend to cross my fingers before I give it a look, but I remember being a pretty big fan of Kelce from the start so I should be safe here... [Reply]
Came to my post after some of these other gems and my heart skipped a beat....
Originally Posted by kysirsoze:
I don't hate the pick. They aren't taking Barkley. They obviously don't like him. I don't think Fasano or Moeaki = TE covered. I'll be surprised if Moeaki plays 8 games this year.
Whew. I'll take it. This thread is hilarious. [Reply]
I don't mind bashing bad takes on drafts. I mean I endured the Geno Smith BS and was essentially told I didn't know shit about anything because the Chiefs didn't draft Geno Smith. So, if you are going to act like you know what the fuck you are talking about, then you make an ass take, you should be ridiculed. [Reply]
Originally Posted by tooge:
I don't mind bashing bad takes on drafts. I mean I endured the Geno Smith BS and was essentially told I didn't know shit about anything because the Chiefs didn't draft Geno Smith. So, if you are going to act like you know what the fuck you are talking about, then you make an ass take, you should be ridiculed.
Geno is about to get a pretty sizable contract. Not sure I'd count that one as a win, even though it took about 10 years for it to bear fruit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
Lol you straight up couldn't find a draft pick thread that Staylor isn't hyping up as a starter.
I'm trying to think of one and can't.
I suspect there are a couple 3rd day picks that received lukewarm praise ("He may take a couple years to be a starter...") but yeah, he's gonna be pretty much everyone's hype man.
He's a little more critical in the draft forum leading up to the picks, but man once those guys get their red jerseys, he's all in... [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
Geno is about to get a pretty sizable contract. Not sure I'd count that one as a win, even though it took about 10 years for it to bear fruit.
He is, but he's still not a guy that is in the discussion with the top QB's in the NFL despite the fact that he had the highest completion percentage this year. There were quite a few posters here that got pretty harsh on anyone that wasn't in the Geno camp. THey know who they are. If they made a bad Kelse take too, well, fuck them. They deserve to be fed crow. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
I'm trying to think of one and can't.
I suspect there are a couple 3rd day picks that received lukewarm praise ("He may take a couple years to be a starter...") but yeah, he's gonna be pretty much everyone's hype man.
He's a little more critical in the draft forum leading up to the picks, but man once those guys get their red jerseys, he's all in...
As we all should be. I mean, it's not like we have any control over it. It's also not like this regime has really done anything to deserve our criticism either. [Reply]
