Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce said he won’t make any swift decisions about his NFL future following a disappointing Super Bowl LIX loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Kelce, 35, was a non-factor in the Chiefs’ failed attempt at a historic threepeat, finishing with four catches for 39 yards on Sunday in New Orleans.
“I know everybody wants to know whether I’m playing next year and right now, I’m just kicking everything down the road. I’m kicking every can I can down the road. I’m not making any crazy decisions,” Kelce said on the latest episode of his “New Heights” podcast released Wednesday.
The 10-time Pro Bowl selection and four-time first-team All-Pro carries a $19.8 million cap hit in the final season of his contract in 2025, which would be his 13th NFL campaign.
Kelce co-hosts the popular podcast with his brother Jason Kelce, the longtime Eagles center who retired before the 2024 season.
Travis Kelce said many times during the weeks leading up to fifth Super Bowl appearance that he planned to return in 2025, but acknowledged that the extra grind of yet another long postseason run takes a toll.
“I’ve been fortunate over the past five, six years, I’ve played more football than anybody,” he said. “It’s because of the people that are in that building. The fact that we keep going to these AFC Championships and these Super Bowls, that means I’m playing an extra three games more than everybody else in the entire league. That’s a lot of wear and tear on your body and it’s a lot of time spent in the building, focusing on your craft, focusing on the task at hand and every challenge that you set up for yourself.”
Kelce caught 97 passes during the 2024 regular season for 823 yards, his lowest total since he had 862 in 2014. He posted seven straight 1,000-yard campaigns from 2016-22.
“As you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success you once had, it’s a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “For that not to be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, those are all extremely hard things … it’s just a tough reality.
“That process can be grueling. It can weigh on you, it can make you better, it can drive you crazy at the same time. And right now, it’s one of those things where it was driving me crazy this year. It happens as you kind of tail off towards the back nine of your career as SVP [ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt] would say.”
Kelce, a third-round draft pick by Kansas City in 2013, has 1,004 receptions for 12,151 yards and 77 touchdowns in 175 regular season games. He has another 178 catches for 2,078 yards and 20 touchdowns — all playoff records — in 25 postseason starts.
–Field Level Media
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