Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce will turn 35 early in the 2024 season, but the Chiefs aren’t worried about his production slipping in his 12th NFL season.
Kelce agreed to a revised deal with the team on Monday that will bump his salary up to $17 million and $17.25 million over the next two years. That puts Kelce at the top of the list of tight ends in the NFL and it’s a clear bet by the Chiefs that he is going to remain at that level.
After the deal was announced, Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach said “every now and then you have one of these guys that are outliers” and that Kelce is one of them. He said the tight end looks like he’s “28 years old” while going through the team’s workouts and that they see now signs that he’s slipping.
“The odds of someone playing this far into the thirties are very low, but it does happen, and it happens with just unicorns in the profession, and Travis is one of those and we’ll certainly celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing even longer,” Veach said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com. “So, we’ll just have to wait and see. But I’ve seen no signs of [Kelce] slowing down and everyone notices the kind of postseason he had, and he just found that extra gear and these special ones, these special players are always able to find that extra gear. If anybody could do it, Travis can.’'
Kelce had 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns in the 2023 regular season before posting 32 catches for 355 yards and four touchdowns in the postseason. That had a lot to do with the Chiefs winning their third Super Bowl in the last five years and he’ll remain front and center to their attempt to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.