This year, we aren’t going to see Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid hoist the Lombardi Trophy. We aren’t going to see Kansas City in the Super Bowl, and we aren’t even going to see the Chiefs in the playoffs. But with three games left to go this season, there is something special I would really, really like to see happen that would end things on a high note.
I want to see Travis Kelce have another 1,000-yard season.
Kelce is, without doubt, one of the greatest tight ends of all time, maybe even the greatest. But there’s no escaping the fact that he’s toward the back end of his career.
At 36 years old, these next three games could very well be the last time we see Kelce in a Chiefs uniform. And even if he chooses to play on, this could be the last opportunity Kelce has to reach the 1,000-yard milestone. It would be fitting to see such a prolific player go out with another historic season.
Travis Kelce’s production remains elite, and one final 1,000-yard push would underline just how rare he still is at 36.
If he gets there, Kelce would become the oldest tight end in NFL history to have a 1,000-yard season, breaking former Philadelphia Eagle Pete Retzlaff’s current record (34 years old), set back in 1965. The milestone would also give Kelce a record-extending eighth 1,000-yard season as a tight end. No other tight end has more than four.
There’s a very good chance he gets to that magic number, too. Kelce has 797 yards through 14 games this season, an average just shy of 57 yards per game. To reach 1,000 yards, he would need to average 68 yards over the next three games, assuming he plays in each of them. Kelce had 70 yards in his last game against the Chargers.
Despite being so close to that target, recent history has shown that Kelce and the Chiefs are not ones for stat-padding. In 2023, Kelce sat out the final regular-season game when he was 16 yards shy of 1,000, ending his seven-year streak.
But with the Chiefs already knocked out of the playoffs, now is the perfect opportunity to feed the ball to their legendary tight end. If the Chiefs force-feed him the ball to get him there, I’m okay with that. Kelce has earned it.
There’s another milestone within Kelce’s reach, too: he is one big game away from having the second-most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history. Kelce needs just 99 yards to move ahead of longtime Dallas Cowboy Jason Witten on the tight end all-time receiving list. Witten had 13,046 yards across his 17-year career; Kelce is just behind him with 12,948 yards.
Kelce has copped his fair share of criticism this year amid what has been Kansas City’s worst season in a decade. Some of that criticism is warranted—Kelce has had three dropped passes turn into interceptions, two of which were huge factors in the Chiefs losing those games, and his speed and effort have looked lackluster at times. It’s been a down year by his Hall of Fame–level standards. But it’s easy to overlook that, even at 36 years old, his production remains elite compared to the rest of the tight ends in the league.
Despite his mistakes, Kelce is tied for second in receiving yards among tight ends with Kyle Pitts, a player he is 11 years older than. He is 24th in the league in receiving yards among all players, with no other Chief inside the top 50. It’s been easy to forget how great Kelce has been across his career and to overlook how productive he has been this season, even with the costly drops.
Another 1,000-yard season would remind Chiefs Kingdom—and the entire NFL world—just how great Travis Kelce has been, while further cementing his future Hall of Fame and GOAT status. Who knows, it could be his swan song. I really, really hope he gets there.