The offseason brought real uncertainty around Travis Kelce, but the Kansas City Chiefs tight end is coming back for at least one more run.
Kelce, 36, spent time weighing whether he wanted to play in the 2026 season after the Chiefs finished 6-11 and missed the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. After reflecting, he decided he wasn’t ready to walk away.
That decision comes after a 2025 season that was below his usual standard, even if the numbers still stood out. Kelce played all 17 games, led the Chiefs in catches, yards and touchdowns, and finished with 76 receptions for 851 yards and five scores. It was one of the quieter statistical years of his career, and it showed up in NFL.com’s Top 100 Players list.
He landed at No. 79, a sharp drop from No. 37 a year ago.
“The newly married superstar, who ranked 37th in last year's Top 100, eclipsed 13,000 career yards receiving, becoming just the third TE to do so, while finishing his 13th season with 1,080 receptions -- good for eighth all time regardless of position,” Grant Gordon wrote Monday.
“Having been voted to his 11th Pro Bowl, Kelce's best seasons might be in the rearview, but his peak form is still better than most.”
Even with the dip in production, Kelce still showed the kind of after-the-catch burst that has defined so much of his career. NFL.com noted that 44.6 percent of his catches in 2025 produced more yards after the catch than expected, the fifth-highest rate among tight ends with at least 40 receptions.
That’s the part of Kelce’s game that still makes him such a problem. Defenses know what he is, know how long he’s been doing it, and still haven’t found a clean answer.
And while his place among the NFL’s all-time greats is already secure, the record chase is still there. He won’t catch Tony Gonzalez’s 15,127 career yards unless he strings together two more 1,000-yard seasons, but he is expected to move past Jason Witten’s 13,046 career yards in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
In Other News...
Travis Kelce Hit With Serious Off Field Twist At Brutal Time
Travis Kelces off-field calendar has been every bit as crowded as his football one, and now it includes a federal trademark fight tied to the Kansas City steakhouse he co-owns with Patrick Mahomes. The case centers on 1587 Prime, a name built around the pairs jersey numbers, and it has put the Chiefs star in the middle of a dispute with 1587 Sneakers over who gets to use that branding.
The timing adds another layer to an already awkward situation, with the legal back-and-forth arriving just as Kelces personal life has been in the spotlight for another reason. The sneaker company says the players can be sued in New York because of national advertising campaigns, while Kelce and Mahomes are pushing back on the case there, leaving the venue question as the next key wrinkle to watch. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Payton Nearly Pulled Off The Most Absurd Broncos Move Yet
Sean Payton has never been shy about thinking big in Denver, but a new report from ESPNs Seth Wickersham suggests one of his most audacious ideas never got past the drawing board. According to the report, Payton explored the possibility of bringing Bill Belichick to the Broncos in a temporary role, a strange arrangement built around Belichicks pursuit of the NFLs all-time coaching wins record before Payton would eventually step back in.
It is the kind of concept that sounds more like a late-night what-if than an actual staffing plan, and apparently it never advanced because it was simply too complicated. Still, it says plenty about the lengths some coaches will consider when legacy and history are in play, especially with Belichick now at North Carolina after his long run in New England. [Read more 🡒]
Travis Kelce Wedding Snub Has Chiefs Fans Eyeing One Friendship
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swifts wedding at Madison Square Garden was always going to draw a crowd, and the reported guest list lived up to the billing with roughly 1,000 people in attendance. The mix of celebrities and familiar football faces made it one of those events that quickly became a talking point well beyond the entertainment world, especially for Chiefs fans who follow every twist in Kelces off-field orbit as closely as they do his catches.
Will Comptons reaction has only added to the chatter around who made the cut and who did not, while Taylor Lewan also weighed in on the guest list and the possibility that some absences carried more meaning than others. For Kansas City, it is another reminder that Kelces personal life still has a way of spilling into the football conversation, and this latest round of speculation has people around the league looking hard at one friendship in particular. [Read more 🡒]