One of the NFL’s best tight ends to ever play is off to a very slow start this season. While the Kansas City Chiefs are off to a regular start for them at 2-0, their elite Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce has been a non-factor in their first two games this year.
Kelce is off to such a slow start that fans are starting to form a theory on how Kelce’s entire season is going to go, and it has since gone viral.
Is Travis Kelce No Longer An Elite Tight End?
Kelce only had a single catch for five yards in their week 2 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and that was the worst game Kelce has had in over 100 games. This is something that NFL fans have not seen in well over half a decade from Kelce, and this game broke a 114 streak of over three catches for Kelce.
Patrick Mahomes is not worried just yet, as he feels Kelce is seeing two defenders on almost every play. He said that he was looking for Kelce a lot, but that the defenses are locking in on him which frees up other receivers:
“They were doing a great job of just having two people for him, pretty much the entire game,” Mahomes said after the game. “That’s why you have guys like Rashee [Rice] and [Xavier] Worthy. If you look at the first touchdown, I’m actually looking to Trav, and the backside safety goes all the way across the field to help guard Travis and you throw the ball down the sideline to Rashee. That’s kind of been what they are doing.”
NFL fans are building a different theory that Kelce is going to have a super slow season and just bring his A-game in the postseason. It makes sense at Kelce’s age, that he would be less impactful during the regular season to ball out in the playoffs when they will actually need him.
“He’s gonna be bad all year and then convert multiple key third downs in the playoffs,” an NFL fan tweeted. “I’m already mad about it.”
He’s gonna be ass all year and then convert multiple key third downs in the playoffs. I’m already mad about it https://t.co/Z6NodCsktd
— Lion (The System) (@Champ_Lion) September 16, 2024
Travis Kelce Responds To Super Slow Start To Season
Cincinnati Bengals At Kansas City Chiefs AFC Championship Jan 29 033
Kelce addressed his slow start on the new episode of the “New Heights” podcast. He took full blame for the slow start saying plainly:
“I put that on me,” Kelce said.
He went on to acknowledge that things on the field won’t always go your way and that he and the offense have to adapt to what the opposing team’s defense is trying to do.
“If you want to catch the football, it has to be the right play, it has to be the right coverage, and it has to be everybody doing their job up front and on the back end in terms of running their routes,” Kelce continued. “For whatever reason, for these past two games, it hasn’t gone that way for me. That’s football.”
Kelce is on pace to have the worst season of his career, however, that could change at any point in time.
“I’m not going to sit here and get frustrated about it,” Kelce said. “I used to get really, really pissed off and almost lose my cool a lot of the time for not having that success, knowing that I demand that out of myself. I just like to play the game to such a high level that it’s tough for me to deal with being mediocre or having stats that represent that.”
Fans however think that Kelce is in a new era of his career and that he is saving his energy for the postseason.
“I think he’s in his late Tim Duncan years where they essentially just save him for the only games that matter for them which is the playoffs,” one fan commented.
“That’s the Chiefs way now,” a social media user wrote. “Cruise through the regular season and flip a switch in the playoffs.”
“We saw the last playoffs, he not fooling anybody with this washed gimmick,” another fan replied.
The more weeks that go on like this Kelce will kiss All-Pro honors goodbye, although he probably cares little of that and his eyes are set on a third straight Super Bowl.
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