Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce may or may not be retiring at some point after Sunday’s 2025 finale at the Raiders. Whether Kelce calls it quits or not, the future Hall of Famer is close to passing a current Hall of Famer on the all-time reception list.
Kelce has 1,077 career catches. Terrell Owens has 1,078. With two on Sunday, Kelce will take over the eighth spot in the record books.
Kelce will need to have a monster day to finish at No. 7, unless he decides to play another year. Hall of Famer Tim Brown has 1,094. Which means Kelce would need to have 18 catches in Las Vegas (not likely) to pass Brown.
All players ahead of Kelce on the all-time reception list are in Canton, with the exception of tight end Jason Witten, who finished his career in 2020 with the Raiders and who is a finalist for enshrinement this year, and Larry Fitzgerald, who also retired after 2020 and also is a finalist for the next class.
Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez has the most receptions for a tight end, with 1,325. He’s third all time, behind Fitzgerald (1,432) and Jerry Rice (1,549).
Chiefs Clips
NFL teams always insist that they would never tank to get a better draft pick. But teams with a high draft pick on the line can and do choose to give plenty of playing time to inexperienced backups, and that’s exactly what the Raiders will do on Sunday, with the first pick in the draft on the line.
If the Raiders lose to the Chiefs, they will pick first overall in the 2026 NFL draft. Raiders coach Pete Carroll said he plans to give playing time to everyone on the active roster, including both backup quarterbacks, Aidan O’Connell and Kenny Pickett.
“Everybody’s gonna play and I’m hoping it works out well,” Carroll said. “It doesn’t always, good plans don’t always come through, but we’ve got plans for these guys to get in there and get their playing time. Really excited to see them. Excited to see them play.”
Among the Raiders who won’t play are starting quarterback Geno Smith, and the Raiders’ two best players, defensive end Maxx Crosby and tight end Brock Bowers. They’re out with injuries, although Crosby has made clear that he wants to play through his knee injury and the Raiders shut him down against his will. If there’s one player on the team who would play to win in any game, it’s Crosby. But the Raiders won’t let him play.
As long as the draft is ordered by giving the highest pick to the team with the worst record, teams will be incentivized to lose. If the NFL wanted to, it could change the draft order in ways that would incentivize teams out of the playoff race continuing to win. For example, the non-playoff teams that ended the regular season with the longest winning streaks could get the highest picks. That would generate plenty of interest in Sunday’s Saints-Falcons game: Both teams are out of playoff contention, but the Saints are on a four-game winning streak and the Falcons are on a three-game winning streak. Reward teams with high picks if they keep playing hard after they’re out of the playoff race, and the NFL would both eliminate tanking and make Week 18 more exciting.
But as it stands, there’s much incentive to tank because the highest pick goes to the worst team. For his part, Carroll insists that his team is just bad, not intentionally bad.
“I never even dreamed it would be like this,” Carroll said. “These guys will continue to work and they’ll stay with it. They don’t want to accept it. They want to only focus on the next opportunity that’s coming up.”
The Raiders have a big opportunity on Sunday, not to win on the field, but to win by losing.
Geno Smith’s season is over.
The Raiders ruled Smith out for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs because of an ankle injury. Kenny Pickett started in place of Smith when he missed time earlier in the season, but head coach Pete Carroll did not reveal whether Pickett or Aidan O’Connell will start this weekend.
Carroll said in his press conference that there is a “rotation in mind” for both players to see action. The Raiders will clinch the No. 1 overall pick in the draft with a loss to Kansas City.
Smith signed a two-year extension after being traded to the Raiders last year and has $18.5 million guaranteed for next season. His play was poor enough that the team could opt to move on without him in 2026, especially with that first-round pick to be used on a quarterback.
Defensive tackle Adam Butler (biceps) and left guard Dylan Parham (illness) have also been ruled out. Running back Raheem Mostert (knee, ankle) is listed as questionable.
The Chiefs have a few injury designations as they prepare for their season finale against the Raiders on Sunday.
Kansas City has listed receiver Xavier Worthy (illness) and guard Trey Smith (ankle) as doubtful for the contest. However, head coach Andy Reid said in his press conference that Smith will not play.
Running back Isiah Pacheco, defensive end George Karlaftis, offensive tackle Jaylon Moore (knee), and defensive lineman Jerry Tillery are all questionable.
Tight end Jake Briningstool (hamstring) has been ruled out.
Running back Kareem Hunt (illness), cornerback Kristian Fulton (knee/wrist), long snapper James Winchester (illness), and defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi (illness) are all off the injury report and are expected to play.
Despite no Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ worst season in 13 years, their Christmas night game against the Broncos delivered.
Prime Video announced on Thursday that the Week 17 Broncos-Chiefs game drew a record 21.06 million viewers, on average.
The prior record was set earlier this month, when 19.39 million watched the Week 14 Thursday night game between the Cowboys and Lions.
The big numbers for the non-compelling Christmas night game bodes well for the earlier non-compelling Christmas afternoon games on Netflix. To date, however, Netflix hasn’t announced its audiences for Cowboys-Commanders or Lions-Vikings.
Last year, the Ravens-Texans game on Netflix set the current streaming record of 24.3 million viewers.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is in the beginning stages of his rehab after undergoing surgery to repair his torn ACL suffered during Kansas City’s Week 15 loss to the Chargers.
Head coach Andy Reid said on Monday that Mahomes has been around the team as the season winds down.
“[H]e’s in the building working and doing his rehab, spending a lot of hours doing it,” Reid said, via transcript from the team. “He’s really attacked that and will continue to do that. He’s around and sees the guys, but most of his time is being spent rehabbing.”
Reid added that Mahomes is unlikely to make the trip to Las Vegas for the Chiefs’ season finale. He was in attendance in a suite for the team’s Christmas Day loss to the Broncos.
Mahomes completed 62.7 percent of his passes this year for 3,587 yards with 22 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Andy Reid isn’t planning on riding off into the sunset after Week 18.
Reid is wrapping up his 13th season as the head coach of the Chiefs and he said on Monday that he’s looking forward to No. 14.
“I think I’m coming back, right,” Reid said, via Matt Derrick of ChiefsDigest.com. “If they’ll have me back, I’ll come back. You never know in this business, that’s a tough one. But I plan on it, yeah.”
The Chiefs made the playoffs for 10 straight seasons before falling short of the postseason this year. That run included five trips to the Super Bowl in the last six years, so it’s hard to imagine the Chiefs are going to be clamoring to push Reid out the door because of one unsuccessful season.
The team may be saying farewell to tight end Travis Kelce and other players who had a hand in that long run of success, but the return of Reid to the sidelines and a return to health for quarterback Patrick Mahomes would provide reason to think that the team can find their way back to the postseason.
The Chiefs plan to move from Missouri to Kansas in 2031. The agreement between the team and its new home state was announced on Monday. The 33-page document signed that day was the result of negotiations that had likely lingered for weeks, if not months.
There’s an obvious takeaway from the full agreement, which has been posted online. It’s not final. Which means there’s a chance it won’t be.
The arrangement with Kansas splits the costs of the domed stadium, at an estimated price tag of $3 billion, on a 60-40 basis. The Chiefs are responsible for 40 percent ($1.2 billion), and Kansas will pick up the other 60 percent ($1.8 billion). The Chiefs will be on the hook for any cost overruns.
The Chiefs also will pay $7 million per year in rent. Of that amount, $350,000 will cover administrative costs on the governmental side. The rest will go into a fund earmarked for repairs, maintenance, management, and operation of the stadium.
The Chiefs will pay all stadium operating costs, including insurance. In return, the Chiefs will “retain all revenues” generated by the new stadium, including naming rights.
But, again, the agreement to move isn’t officially done. There are several “conditions precedent,” which is legalese for “stuff that has to happen before it’s real.” The Chiefs, for example, have to acquire, by purchase or long-term lease, the stadium site. And while the Chiefs have agreed to engage in no negotiations with anyone else while the process of hammering out a fully final and binding agreement with Kansas continues, the Chiefs have a hand in the ultimate kill switch for the project: Failure of the NFL to approve the Kansas deal by October 31, 2026.
Even though the Chiefs can’t negotiate with Missouri in the coming months, nothing stops Missouri from reacting to its recent “shock to the system” by coming up with an equal or better offer to keep the team at a renovated Arrowhead Stadium and to publicize those terms in advance of the eventual NFL vote to approve the Kansas stadium.
And so, like any other deal —no matter how big or small — nothing is done until it’s officially and finally done. While Kansas has crafted an inside track, the race isn’t over. Assuming, that is, Missouri becomes willing and able to make the kind of move that will get enough owners to decide that the team’s 50-plus year history at Arrowhead Stadium should not be so quickly disregarded under the terms currently offered (or whatever else they’d say to justify not approving the Kansas project).
That’s not to say it will happen. Under the agreement reached on Monday, however, it absolutely can. First, Missouri has to decide that it’s willing to try to throw a wrench into the planned relocation.
With last night’s closer-than-expected victory over the Chiefs — Denver’s first at Arrowhead Stadium in a decade — Broncos coach Sean Payton joined Bill Belichick as the only coaches with at least five seasons of 13 or more wins. (Belichick had seven.)
Payton was asked about the accomplishment after the game.
“I have been fortunate to have been on and coached a lot of great players,” Payton told reporters. “There is nothing like winning. When I heard that, I had trouble figuring out which were the 13-win teams. We had some other teams that were 12- or 11-win teams. I have been fortunate to have really good players and real good coaches. Some of them who are right here that have been a part of all of those wins, part of those wins. Obviously, Bill is good company. Let’s keep it going.”
In New Orleans, Payton’s Saints won 13 or more games in 2009, 2011, 2018, and 2019. The Saints had 11 wins three others times (2010, 2013, 2017) and 12 wins once (2020). That’s eight years with 11 or more victories.
As to the Broncos getting their first victory at Kansas City in a decade, Payton said he didn’t bring that up with his players in the days preceding the game.
“Those are someone else’s demons,” Payton said. “I heard that all of the time in New Orleans, ‘You’ve never won a playoff game.’ That’s not this team. You can’t fight those other demons.”
On Thursday night, they finally exorcized that specific demon. But the Broncos have far bigger goals. As Payton said after clinching a playoff berth, that wasn’t one of the objectives. The first was to win the division. And that still hasn’t happened. If the Chargers beat the Texans on Saturday afternoon, it’ll come down to Chargers at Broncos in Week 18, as Payton goes for his first ever 14-win season.
Much of the coverage of Thursday night’s Broncos-Chiefs game focused on the question of whether tight end Travis Kelce was playing his final game at Arrowhead Stadium. His slow exit from the field did little to counter the notion that, after the season ends, he’ll be retiring.
After the game, Kelce (who has not been speaking much to reporters this year) took to the podium and addressed the elephant in the room.
“Honestly, I’ve just been focused on trying to win football games, man,” Kelce said. “I’ll let that be a decision I make with my family, friends, the Chiefs organization when the time comes.”
The time is creeping closer. The Chiefs end the season next weekend, with a visit to the Raiders.
It seemed that Kelce was poised to retire if the Chiefs had won Super Bowl LIX. After the loss to the Eagles, he decided to keep it going.
If he would make the same decision in 2026, the first order of business will be a new contract. Kelce is slated to become a free agent for the first time in his career. He could, in theory, sign with any team he wants.
It’s impossible to imagine that happening. Currently, the signs are pointing to the 36-year-old Kelce calling it a career. One that will get him a bronze bust not far from where he grew up.
Given that he has already positioned himself to do pretty much whatever he wants (and to do it well) when he takes off his helmet for the last time, the last time seems to be roughly a week away. It’s ultimately his decision.
And, as we’ve learned from the likes of Brett Favre and Tom Brady — and more recently Brandon Graham and Philip Rivers — no retirement decision is ever irrevocable.
