The Kansas City Chiefs weren't sure if star tight end and future Hall of Famer Travis Kelce would return for another season going into the offseason.
We are approaching the end of one of the greatest National Football League careers we have ever seen, especially for a tight end, but Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce has at least one more season in him before he hangs up the cleats.
Kelce, 36, was unsure if he would suit up for the 2026 season after the Chiefs went 6-11 and failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. The legendary tight end took some time this offseason to reflect and decided he couldn’t end his career like that.
The 2025 campaign was one of Kelce’s worst statistical seasons and it appeared that he was losing a step yet still had 76 receptions for 851 yards and five touchdowns while playing all 17 games, leading the team in all categories.
He’s still one of the best tight ends in the game and overall players in the NFL, but this past season did a number on his ranking in NFL.com’s Top 100 Players list. Kelce checked in at No. 79, falling 42 spots from last year’s ranking of No. 37.
“The newly married superstar, who ranked 37th in last year's Top 100, eclipsed 13,000 career yards receiving, becoming just the third TE to do so, while finishing his 13th season with 1,080 receptions -- good for eighth all time regardless of position,” Grant Gordon wrote Monday.
“Having been voted to his 11th Pro Bowl, Kelce's best seasons might be in the rearview, but his peak form is still better than most.”
Although it wasn’t his best year, Kelce did impress in the yards-after-catch department – according to NFL.com, Kelce had more yards after the catch than expected on 44.6 percent of his catches in 2025, the fifth-highest rate among tight ends with at least 40 receptions.
He is known for being able to pick up a ton of extra yards, but after how long he’s been doing it, one may think the league could figure him out and slow him down; that hasn’t happened yet.
When it’s all said and done, he may go down as the greatest tight end to ever do it based on accolades and skill. Unless he has two more 1,000-yard seasons, he won’t pass fellow Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez’s 15,127 career yards, but he will likely pass Dallas Cowboys great Jason Witten’s 13,046 career yards in Week 1 of the 2026 season.
