Alex Smith explains Travis Kelce’s lack of production in Week 3

During the win over the Chargers in Week 3, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had his worst game ever as an NFL player in terms of stats. Alex Smith explains.

Travis Kelce had a memorable day in Week 3. Against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end went out, played a full game against a division rival and came away with a notable line on the stat sheet. Unfortunately for Kelce, it was a line that stood out because of the complete lack of production.

Kelce set a personal low in the game against the Chargers last Sunday, despite the Chiefs ability to put up 24 points and win by 14 overall. Kelce had a single catch for a single yard. It’s not as if he didn’t take advantage of opportunities either, since he only had a single target. For some reason, Kelce simply never had the chance as the Chargers took him out of the game plan entirely.

Just the previous week, Kelce had put up 103 yards on 8 catches and 1 touchdown that included an incredible five-yard dive into the end zone—a play that made it onto highlight reels coast-to-coast that weekend. So it’s not as if Kelce isn’t a key part of the offense at this point. He’s an All-Pro tight end in his prime with an expensive extension to show for it.

Starting quarterback Alex Smith explained to the media on Thursday why Kelce failed to get much of anything on the stat sheet.

"It was not something I would have foreseen at all. It just kind of went that way the way they were playing him. A lot of missed opportunities as well. I think looking back I do think that it was a lot of different reasons, I guess. He is a guy that gets a lot of focus from defense. That was part of it, but certainly, there were some opportunities out there that we didn’t take advantage of."

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What’s interesting is that Kelce wasn’t a big part of the season-opening win over the Patriots either, with five catches for 40 total yards. Through three games, Kelce has 144 total receiving yards. Projected over a full season, Kelce would have 768 receiving yards, a career-low total and a steep drop from his breakout total of 1,125 receiving yards last season.

Of course if the Chiefs keep winning, no one is going to complain. Kelce’s presence keeps defenses honest (and even guessing) as to the best approach toward the Chiefs multi-faceted attack. Kareem Hunt leads the NFL in rushing, but Tyreek Hill can take the top off of the defense on any given play. So how does a team handle Kelce as well? That’s the choice defensive coordinators have to make. For now, however, it also means that Kelce might need to roll with it while the team continues to win even as he’s not getting his fair share of the production.