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 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.
Serious gold. Hilarious takes on the first page, especially one in particular by someone who proclaims he "protects the planet from losers". Also of note, Pete gets a lot of shit but he nailed this one from the gate. [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 was apparently feeling cranky, but I'm proud that I at least didn't let the pessimism sway me. That said, I'm not at all a draft guru, so my takes were mostly just in reaction to the constant negativity. [Reply]
Originally Posted by teedubya:
This thread was a trainwreck full of bad takes... especially SaulDumbGuy wishing two blownout ACLs for Kelce. What a bunch of asshats.
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
That 4th and 2 connection might have actually been more difficult.
That was tight coverage and Mahomes put a dart up there. He had to reach up and pick it.
I was dead sure that ball was going off his hands and to a defender. That play looked smothered and it just didn't matter.
Yeah, the 9 second catch. That 4th down dart and the bottom corner TD are all just absolutely impossible catches. The 9 second one didn’t look tough, but him getting there and then the ball got tipped that’s damn impossible.
Kittle is great and all but he can’t do any of that except maybe the 4th down catch, but most of his stuff isn’t that contested.
This is one of those games that a guy can point to and say, dude is the best ever, and he did it at 34 years old. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Why Not?:
Serious gold. Hilarious takes on the first page, especially one in particular by someone who proclaims he "protects the planet from losers". Also of note, Pete gets a lot of shit but he nailed this one from the gate.
The first few pages literally read like a parody.
Like the breakdowns of him as a player just read like some made up shit from a Will Farrell movie. [Reply]
