Travis Kelce had another fantastic game on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.
On the Monday morning following a Kansas City Chiefs game, my column is normally focused on reacting to that particular game. However, this week I didn’t feel like writing yet another “the Chiefs pulled out an ugly win despite getting outplayed because they’re just that talented” piece after the Chiefs eked out a 33-31 win over the Carolina Panthers. If you’re in the mood to read that kind of reaction, feel free to read this from a few weeks back and pretend I’m talking about the Panthers game. Today I want to talk about Travis Kelce.
I don’t need to tell you that Travis Kelce is great. We all know that, but I think sometimes we take just how great he is for granted. Against the Panthers, the offense was stagnant for much of the day, with the exception of Travis Kelce. Tyreek Hill made a few big plays down the stretch, but it was Kelce’s 10 receptions for 159 yards that really kept the Chiefs offense competitive for much of the afternoon.
Kelce’s big day brought his season totals up to:
- 58 receptions
- 769 yards receiving
- 6 touchdowns
If Kelce maintains that pace for the final seven games of the season after the bye, it would put him on pace for these totals for the season:
- 103.1 receptions
- 1,367.1 yards receiving
- 10.7 touchdowns
Those numbers are far and away the best of any tight end in football right now. With George Kittle battling injuries, the only other tight end that is close right now is the Las Vegas Raiders’ Darren Waller who has 50 receptions for 394 yards and 4 touchdowns on the season. In fact, Kelce’s numbers aren’t just the best of any tight end in football. They are among the best receiving stats in all the NFL this year, including wide receivers. As I’m typing this, Stefon Diggs leads the NFL in both receptions and receiving yards with 63 receptions and 813 yards. So Kelce is only 5 receptions and 44 yards off the league lead.
During Sunday’s game, Kelce passed former Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe for the third most receiving yards in team history. I thought it might be interesting to take a minute today and look at just where he ranks both in Chiefs history and in NFL history and see just how many more productive seasons it would take him to move to the top of those lists. Let’s start by looking at where Kelce stands on the Chiefs all-time receiving lists.