Kansas City Chiefs: Travis Kelce could break Chiefs tight end record
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has the opportunity to do something that even former Chief Tony Gonzalez couldn’t in 2018.
The hype train around the Kansas City Chiefs offense is far from slowing down as young quarterback Patrick Mahomes will take the reins in 2018. Fans are excited to start the journey with a quarterback of their own. Given all of the weapons around him and his own talents, it’s hard not to rave about what could happen for the Chiefs offense in 2018.
Tight end Travis Kelce has raved this offseason about his new young quarterback as well. Everyone has talked about the arm talent that Mahomes has, but Kelce took it a step further and talked about his leadership and preparation is what has him most excited.
"“He just took control out there on the first day,” Kelce noted of Mahomes early in the offseason program. “That’s the biggest thing is seeing that he does have control of the room at such a young age, knowing this is his first rodeo in the NFL. He’s not shy about taking the lead and that’s huge. It makes it easier on all of us to see the direction of where this can go and it’s easy to follow that. It’s just his preparation,” Kelce added. “He was ready at any point in time to go into the game and try to win for us (last year). It’s all based off his preparation and how he went about his week-to-week work.”"
While everything is centered around Mahomes and what he could do for the Chiefs, there’s something that most people aren’t talking about. It’s something that Travis Kelce himself could accomplish in 2018. Something that not even former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez was ever able to achieve.
Kelce has a chance to make it a third straight 1,000-yard receiving season in 2018 which has only been done by one tight end in NFL History which was Carolina Panthers’ Greg Olsen (2014-2016). Even players like Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, and Rob Gronkowski have never made this achievement.
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Over the last two seasons, no tight end has more receiving yards than that of Travis Kelce. In fact, his 2,163 yards over the previous two seasons ranks 10th among all NFL receivers over that span. Kelce has the opportunity to do what only one tight end in history has done which is making it a third straight 1,000-yard season.
It could prove difficult considering the number of weapons on Kansas City’s offense this season with players like running back Kareem Hunt and wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins. That’s not to say that it’s impossible. Kelce might be in the best offense to have a shot at making that record.
Head coach Andy Reid loves to get the ball to his tight ends more than any other coach in the league. Last season the Chiefs attempted the third-most passes in the NFL out of two tight end sets. Reid has made Kelce one of the biggest weapons in this Kansas City offense, and I don’t see that slowing down anytime soon.
Over the last two seasons, Kelce has caught 168 passes which average 84 per season. Last season Kelce ranked 11th among receptions in the entire NFL (wide receivers and running backs included). Given the amount of talent surrounding Kelce, he could see some favorable matchups in 2018 as defenses try and slow down other parts of the Chiefs offense.
Next: The chiefs defense will improve in 2018
Will Travis Kelce achieve three 1,000-yard consecutive seasons this year? It’s something that even some of the best in history have not been able to accomplish, but there is no reason to doubt Kelce, and this Chiefs offense come 2018.