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]
He's washed. He said publicly he's thought a lot about retirement. Thats a red flag and its showing on the field. He will get some good ones but he's old. Happens to all players. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
He's washed. He said publicly he's thought a lot about retirement. Thats a red flag and its showing on the field. He will get some good ones but he's old. Happens to all players.
When an old declining guy mentally checks out, it’s over. Faking a flop last week when he easily could have caught the TD if he tried was the last straw for me.
He’s not interested anymore. So be it. Get some young playmakers in here and we move on. Dude has been amazing. If he’s done, he’s earned it. He has been a legend. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
He's washed. He said publicly he's thought a lot about retirement. Thats a red flag and its showing on the field. He will get some good ones but he's old. Happens to all players.
Travis is not washed and some of y’all are delusional buffoons. If Travis is washed, then so must be Pat. Because Pat’s play has been average all year, just like Travis’. These two guys are suffering from symptoms of a poor team. You can see both are angry, flustered, frustrated, exasperated and fed up with the BS that are their offensive colleagues who time and time again play like hot garbage. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
He's washed. He said publicly he's thought a lot about retirement. Thats a red flag and its showing on the field. He will get some good ones but he's old. Happens to all players.
Your a moron. He isn't close to washed. He's pissed about the lack of productivity. He was open a ton today and Mahomes looked everywhere else. He was a wrecking ball when he got going. Some of these quotes on here are a joke right? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Red Dawg:
He's washed. He said publicly he's thought a lot about retirement. Thats a red flag and its showing on the field. He will get some good ones but he's old. Happens to all players.
he's not washed. Bet he's still as good as Mark Andrews/Hockenson if not better next season with other threats. I still think he has 2 more years left if he can avoid major injuries and if he's interested. I feel he will want to go out on top. Washed TE's aren't getting a 1000+ yards. I'll consider him washed when he can barely scrape 500 [Reply]
Originally Posted by Wisconsin_Chief:
When an old declining guy mentally checks out, it’s over. Faking a flop last week when he easily could have caught the TD if he tried was the last straw for me.
He’s not interested anymore. So be it. Get some young playmakers in here and we move on. Dude has been amazing. If he’s done, he’s earned it. He has been a legend.
He still loves this game but he's been banged up all year. He's 34 and probably hurting too. The dudes a warrior. [Reply]
He's washed up like I said before. He doesn't have that burst and drops too many balls when anticipating a hit.
Chiefs have to start looking for his successor because it appears days of Kelce being that guy on offense is over.
Originally Posted by Sure-Oz:
He still loves this game but he's been banged up all year. He's 34 and probably hurting too. The dudes a warrior.
He is a warrior and definitely in a lot of pain. You can see it in his face every time he gets hit.
I hope he balls out in playoffs but I don't think that's realistic anymore. I just hope he can still be a major threat in the red zone at least [Reply]
Originally Posted by PAChiefsGuy:
He's washed up like I said before. He doesn't have that burst and drops too many balls when anticipating a hit.
Chiefs have to start looking for his successor because it appears days of Kelce being that guy on offense is over.
He is a warrior and definitely in a lot of pain. You can see it in his face every time he gets hit.
I hope he balls out in playoffs but I don't think that's realistic anymore. I just hope he can still be a major threat in the red zone at least
Absolutely. He's still had a great year all things considering. But this is why I said this in the offseason that we needed to plan for this. And invest in WR and another TE to offset his undoubted future decline. People thought it was disrespectful to Travis Kelce or something.
As we've seen with many players the decline comes fast, and hard. He's unlikely to be the 1,000 yard guy next year. Just like he was unlikely to be the 1300 yard guy we had last year for this season. [Reply]
