4 reasons why Travis Kelce's 1,000-yard seasons streak might be in danger

Editor's note: Story has been edited tor correct a factual error that stated no tight end ever had more than two 1,000 yard seasons when Greg Olsen had three consecutive 1K-yard seasons from 2014-2016.

Travis Kelce's streak of consecutive seasons with 1,000 or more receiving yards for a tight end is ridiculous. Full stop. No other tight end has ever had more than two straight seasons of 1,000 yards or more. Not Tony Gonzalez. Not Shannon Sharpe. Not Rob Gronkowski. Only Kelce.

After seven straight years, it almost feels automatic. How can Kelce not get to 1,000 receiving yards in a season? Seems like a simple question, but the reality is that there are several reasons why the streak might be in jeopardy in 2023

The first is age. Kelce is 34 this year. There is only one other tight end in NFL history who has ever gotten more than 1000 yards in their age 34 season (or older). His name was Pete Retzlaf and he did it five years before the Chiefs won their first Super Bowl.

Travis Kelce has had seven straight seasons of at least 1,000 yards. Is he in danger of breaking that streak this year?

The second was injuries. This offseason Kelce said that he was going to play "until the wheels fall off". It didn't seem to take long for at least one wheel to momentarily fall off. A knee injury just before the season started kept him out of Week 1.

A few weeks later another injury briefly took Kelce out and all of Chiefs Kingdom held their breath. He ended up coming back to the game, but it was easy to wonder if his ironman status (not having missed a game since his rookie season) might starting to rust.

Third is his relationship. Some are also wondering if his now public relationship with Taylor Swift is causing a distraction, too. But looking at the numbers, he plays better when she's around. So Taylor, please keep distracting him. Seriously, just a couple of weeks ago he was averaging 108 receiving yards per game when Swift was around, and only 46.5 when she's not.

The final factor going against Kelce is the lack of other solid receiving options on the Kansas City Chiefs offense. This in theory would mean that Kelce gets force-fed receptions from Patrick Mahomes. And he does, a lot. But it also means teams know they really only have to focus on Kelce defensively.

All of these factors have led to a real boom or bust season for Kelce. Some Sundays he's putting up near 200-yard performances and others he doesn't even produce 15 yards. (Although he did set the franchise receiving record last week.)

All in all Kelce is at 597 yards with 8 games to go. It seems like Kelce should be able to pick up another 400 yards over the next two months. Heck, it seems like he could pick it up over the next three weeks. But it also wouldn't feel all that surprising if he doesn't average the required 50 yards per game the rest of the way.

For the first time in a long time, it's truly up in the air whether or not he'll hit 1,000 yards for yet another season.