The Kansas City Chiefs got some good news Monday morning in the latest saga of tight end Travis Kelce vs retirement.
There’s been a lot of uncertainty and fuzzy rumors about the return of tight end Travis Kelce for one last season, but the one thing that seemed certain was that he’d be coming back with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Hold that thought. According to both Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk and Diana Russini and Jesse Newell of The Athletic, Kelce’s representatives will talk to multiple teams once the negotiating period opens. It’s a strange twist in what seemed like a locked-down story, and now the narrative feels like one of those “follow the money” deals.
That’s Florio’s theory, anyway. He said this situation could be as simple as the Chiefs’ current offer falls below Kelce’s expectations, which makes sense given that Kansas City is trying to open up as much cap space as possible to revamp the roster.
Kelce’s representatives listening to other teams could be nothing more than “an effort to shake more cash from the Kansas City tree,” to use Florio’s colorful description.
The tight end still has value, as The Athletic noted, but the question is how much. Kelce struggled with age and the limitations of the Chiefs offense at times, but he did catch 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns.
Chiefs GM Brett Veach addressed the team’s approach at the NFL combine, indicating that Kansas City was prepared for Kelce’s return or his retirement, but the possibility of the tight end donning another team’s uniform was never covered for obvious reasons.
“We’ve kind of prepared for either scenario (retire or come back),” Veach said on Feb. 24 in Indianapolis. “Coach (Andy Reid) mentioned on Friday he’d had great dialogue with Travis on our end. Myself, (assistant general manager) Chris Shea, Travis’ crew, we’ve had some good dialogue there, and I’m sure we’re going to see him here, along with all the other players’ agents. And we’ll continue that dialogue.
“Travis is the best. He’s an icon. Hopefully, he comes back, and we’ll just kind of let that process play out.”
This is probably just a minor money kerfuffle that will get resolved in the next couple of days, but for the moment it’s an entertaining development. The Athletic had Kelce slotted in for $10 million on a one-year deal, which aligns with most of the other projections that are out there.
For those who like to have fun with unlikely possibilities, imagining Kelce wearing a Denver Broncos uni is one, for instance, and the Los Angeles Chargers also probably wouldn’t mind adding Kelce to their tight end room. These possibilities may sound far fetched, but it’s important to remember that they seemed virtually impossible as recently as 24 hours ago.
Latest Update:
Since publishing this story Monday morning, multiple sources have confirmed that Kelce is expected to return for one last ride with Kansas City.
NFL Network's Ian Rapoport was one of the latest to the news, stating that "Kelce is expected to return to Kansas City for a 14th season, a message that's been delivered to teams who will want him." Terms have also been confirmed via a report that this was a one-year deal for $12 million with a maximum of $15 million, according to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN.