Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce recently suggested he wanted to embrace more of a football-first mindset coming off the club’s 40-22 Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles this past February.
For an article published on Tuesday, Nate Taylor of ESPN explained how Kelce prepared for what could become the final season of his Hall of Fame playing career.
“This offseason was different,” Taylor wrote about the veteran who turns 36 years old in October. “Kelce did what he did when he was a younger player: He trained in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with trainer Tony Villani to recapture some of the speed, agility and quickness he had felt he lost over the years. A large focus for Kelce was plyometrics, sessions where he wanted to gain greater explosion when changing directions, a trait he mastered earlier in his career when he had the ball in the middle of the field to elude defenders.”
Kelce went six straight games without a touchdown reception to open the 2024 campaign after he spent portions of the offseason traveling around the world with girlfriend and entertainment superstar Taylor Swift. He also accepted multiple acting jobs and was named the host of the “Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” program following the 2023 season.
By the time Week 18 of the 2024 campaign had wrapped up, Kelce’s 823 receiving yards and three touchdown receptions were career lows outside of when he appeared in a single game as a rookie in 2013. The three-time Super Bowl champion in the final year of his contract has since made it known he returned for another season because he couldn’t “go out like that” and because he feels he can play “at a higher level than [he] did” last season.
It seems head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes will have a motivated Kelce on the field for Kansas City’s Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Reid…is known for having one of the most grueling camps in the NFL,” Taylor added. “The tempo at practice is faster than that of a game; projected starters get more reps than normal, and players routinely leave the fields drenched in sweat and near exhaustion. Kelce knows Reid’s camp can test a player’s true love for the sport, especially when one is in the twilight of his career. Despite entering Year 13, Kelce didn’t miss a single practice, consistently made athletic catches in the middle of the field and remained on the field to run more routes for Mahomes even after appearing fatigued the previous rep.”
As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Chiefs fourth among the betting favorites at +850 odds to win Super Bowl LX in February 2026. Kelce and Co. will look to show Kansas City is still the team to beat in the AFC when the Chiefs face the Chargers in Brazil on Friday, Sept. 5.
