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 RunKC:
I’m so glad he passed Gronk in both postseason yards and TD’s. He isn’t too far from Jerry Rice. Maybe 3 more years if he stays healthy.
Rice's postseason records used to be considered untouchable. Still can't take deep runs in the postseason for granted, but it's not out of the question that Trav could cause some of those records to fall, which is crazy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by poolboy:
Props to Travis...he didnt hold out for the full Tyreek bag.......
His salary is substantial but he is not being a bitch about it
-MVP in every phase... Travis Kelce..one of a kind
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
To be fair, Chief Fans can be really stupid.
It had nothing to do with stupid. It had everything to do with desperation. That happens when you're team doesn't commit to acquiring a franchise QB for 30+ years. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It had nothing to do with stupid. It had everything to do with desperation. That happens when you're team doesn't commit to acquiring a franchise QB for 30+ years.
Yeah, really hard for me to call anyone that was mad we didn't take a QB stupid. I also wanted to draft any QB that had a chance to be good. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It had nothing to do with stupid. It had everything to do with desperation. That happens when you're team doesn't commit to acquiring a franchise QB for 30+ years.
Pretty much this. It's part of the reason why CP latched on to almost any competent QB in the draft. Through the Peterson and Pioli years it did not seem like they would ever draft one. Eventually it got nuts with the Geno crowd (still glad we didn't get him). No one thought at that time from what I recall (and I refuse to navigate through 7 pages of posts) Kelce would not only be a first ballot HOFer, but become one of, if not the best TEs to ever play.
I have learned over the years to not get too emotional one way or another over any pick (minus Mahomes). You just never know how these players turn out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It had nothing to do with stupid. It had everything to do with desperation. That happens when you're team doesn't commit to acquiring a franchise QB for 30+ years.
Yep, I was still just a lurker back when Kelce was drafted, but I remember wanting Barkley, too. He was at one point considered the #1 overall pick, was hard not to be intrigued. Didn't know much about Kelce. Not going to pretend I was onboard.
After he missed his entire rookie year to injury, I didn't have much hope for him. Good thing I'm just a guy typing things on a message board. :-) [Reply]
