Travis Kelce got a front-row reminder of just how rare Tyreek Hill was when Tom Brady stopped by the latest New Heights episode and started trading stories about elite receivers.
The season finale, released Wednesday, brought Brady onto the podcast and quickly turned into a conversation about the kind of wideouts who force defenses to change everything. Brady opened by talking about Randy Moss with the Patriots, while Jason Kelce brought up DeSean Jackson from his Eagles days. That set Travis Kelce up to jump in with his own praise for Hill, the former Chiefs receiver who still looms large in Kansas City memories.
“He didn’t have that stride that the two we were just talking about, DeSean and Randy Moss, but his ability to find the ball and to meet it down is second to none too,” Kelce said.
Brady wanted a story, and Kelce had one ready from Hill’s first days with the Chiefs. Kansas City picked Hill in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, and Kelce was entering his fourth season with the team. What stood out immediately, he said, was how fast Hill’s talent showed up in practice.
“It’s insane ... the first day we got him, it was like a little seven-on-seven in OTAs, and he caught like just like a flat route, like it was like a bubble-slant RPO, and he was the bubble. He caught the bubble, nobody got within two arms length of him. He just ran down the sideline, and I’m just sitting here like we just got the most electric player in the draft,” Kelce said laughing.
Kelce said that early stretch in OTAs and training camp made it obvious what kind of ceiling Hill had with Patrick Mahomes. Those sessions, he said, were all about seeing how far the offense could push the ball and how well Hill could track it.
“It was insane, dog, and you already know a lot of the practice reps (are) just like what you were saying. Just testing out how far a quarterback can throw it.
Like, we can connect down field if he can track it. And seeing the plays that him and (Patrick) Mahomes would make in OTAs or in training camp, and just testing the waters to see how far we could go.
I mean, it’s insane.”
Fans got a taste of that connection in the preseason, when Mahomes and Hill hooked up on a 69-yard bomb.
Brady then added his own memory from facing the Chiefs, saying Bill Belichick altered the Patriots’ defensive plan because of Hill’s ability to wreck a game. Brady said the calls on third down were focused on doubling Kelce, but not Hill at first, and that decision came back to bite New England.
“So we play you guys one year,” Brady said of the Chiefs, “and Bill was like, ‘All right, the calls on third down are one double Travis, one double 87.’ And we didn’t double Tyreek, and Tyreek went for like 200-plus that game, and you guys beat us. And Bill came in the next day, says, ‘We’re doubling Tyreek, we’re not gonna let him go for 200 on us.’
“So it was like back and forth on third down, who we’re doubling. And it’s kind of cool for us, because you do see, most NFL players are obviously supremely talented, and then every once in a while you see someone who is just a little more talented than everybody else, and you go, ‘Man, that is a special talent, that’s crazy.’”
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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 🡒]