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 dannybcaitlyn:
I didn’t get past reading the first two pages at the beginning of this thread and the comments are Gold! lol
This thread is absolutely gold if you start from the beginning. I mean it's full of some of the hottest takes in the history of Chiefs Planet.
With all of that - the reason that Travis looks like he reverse aged IMO is simply the knee injury he sustained at the start of the season. And that he decided to push through it the rest of the year. Once he was able to basically rest for around 2 weeks or so, it got better.
The last two games he's looked just like his old self. He's not slowing down. [Reply]
Originally Posted by TheGuardian:
This thread is absolutely gold if you start from the beginning. I mean it's full of some of the hottest takes in the history of Chiefs Planet.
With all of that - the reason that Travis looks like he reverse aged IMO is simply the knee injury he sustained at the start of the season. And that he decided to push through it the rest of the year. Once he was able to basically rest for around 2 weeks or so, it got better.
The last two games he's looked just like his old self. He's not slowing down.
I don't think the average fan has ANY idea what a single NFL game does to the human body. NOBODY out there is "healthy" and injuries can have profound effects. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla:
I don't think the average fan has ANY idea what a single NFL game does to the human body. NOBODY out there is "healthy" and injuries can have profound effects.
John Welbourn is one of my best friends, and he's had me on his podcast many times. I've actually gotten him to go into this a lot, but basically by the end of the season you're just walking hamburger meat. [Reply]
Mahomes/Kelce surpassed Brady/Gronk for TDs in playoff games with 16, but I didn't hear that they did it in SIX LESS GAMES! Brady/Gronk couldn't put up as many given 360 minutes more of football together. Crazy. [Reply]
