Travis Kelce has four years on George Kittle—in the National Football League and in life. Kittle just signed an official contract extension to at least make up for that time on the field.
Together, Kittle and Kelce are establishing new norms at the tight end position—or at least new ceilings—for what's possible for elite tight ends well into their mid-thirties.
The San Francisco 49ers took care of one of their two most pressing financial concerns—the other being quarterback Brock Purdy's lack of a long-term deal—with a shiny new contract extension for Kittle on Tuesday. NFL reporter Ian Rapoport has the terms at four years and $40 million guaranteed.
Kittle's new extension is worth up to $76.4 million and carries him through the 2029 season—the year he will turn 36 years old. Kelce, by contract, is going to be 36 this season in October (same as Kittle, since their birthdays are only four days apart) and is in the final season of his deal.
In short, it's possible that both tight ends will wrap up their careers at 36—after 13 NFL seasons. That's an incredible achievement.
Of course, no one should be pushing Kelce out the door just yet. And Kittle has yet to play through the new deal. So, such projections on both fronts are inaccurate. But the new deal and Kelce's current standing give them eerily similar paths toward their potential ends in professional football, which only serves to highlight the HOF-worthy careers of both.
Even since turning 30, Kelce has made six Pro Bowl rosters and has earned four All-Pro honors. If you look only at his stats since leaving his twenties, Kelce has 594 catches for 6,915 yards and 45 touchdowns. He's averaged 73 yards per game in his thirties for the Chiefs offense.
If you cut Kelce's career down to only what he's achieved after turning 30, he would still rank in the top 5 among tight ends all time for receptions and top 15 for receiving yards.
Kittle has only played two seasons into his thirties officially, but he's already a two-time Pro Bowler in that span, both with a first-team and second-team All-Pro mention as well. He's eclipsed the 1,000 yards receiving mark both years, and his current run of good health after bigger injury concerns earlier in his career bodes well for the road ahead—hence the extension.
Of course, Kelce and Kittle aren't the first tight ends to play so well for so long. Tony Gonzalez established every new benchmark in his Hall of Fame career, and Chiefs Kingdom was blessed to see that elite run of production first-hand. But Gonzalez has always been the outlier, the ultra-athletic freak who was singularly blessed to do what he did.
Since then, greats like Antonio Gates have played well into their thirties (38 in Gates' case), but the dominance had waned several years prior. Gates would never make a Pro Bowl in his final seven seasons. Jason Witten was also 38 in his final season, but his importance to the Cowboys' offense (and others near the end) was a fraction of what it was previously. The same can be said of Greg Olsen.
For other all-time great tight ends, such longevity was never in the cards. Rob Gronkowski suffered too many injuries for such a run and retired from the NFL at the age of 32.
For the majority of their careers, Kittle and Kelce have dominated opponents as well as the greater conversation about which tight end is the best. Others are now entering that fray—Brock Bowers deserves a nod here—but now the pair of tight ends is pushing the boundaries of what is possible for a storied veteran as he ages.