Travis Kelce has played 13 seasons in the NFL. For many of those years, the Kansas City Chiefs pass-catcher has been the best tight end in the NFL. He has ranked top-three in PFN’s TE Impact Score in eight of his 13 seasons, including three finishes at No. 1. Even at 36 years old last year, he still posted the fifth-best TEi score (80.6) in the league.
Of all the players on an NFL roster right now, Kelce ranks second in career receiving yards at 13,002. That’s good for 23rd among all pass-catchers in NFL history. Yet, not even the future Hall of Famer can play forever, and there are rumblings that this will be his final season.
Will This Be Travis Kelce’s Final NFL Season?
The recently married Kelce turns 37 years old on October 5. Eventually, Father Time will catch up to him. It may even already be calling his name.
Recently, Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter shared a picture of himself alongside Kelce on Instagram. The post quickly made headlines due to the caption he used.
“Andrew and I started with Travis before his rookie year in the NFL. Know the (GOAT) is preparing for THE LAST DANCE. Next stop Canton/HOF,” Carter wrote.
Kansas City missed the playoffs last year, so Kelce is hoping to help the Chiefs return to contention in what could be his last year.
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Kelce is coming off his 12th consecutive season with at least 800 receiving yards. He didn’t reach the 1,000-yard barrier last season, but his 851 yards still ranked 27th in the NFL and fourth among tight ends. The Chiefs didn’t have Patrick Mahomes for the full season after he tore his ACL and missed the final three games of the year.
Kelce may very well have a bounce-back campaign in him, and it’s not like he had a “down” season by any means. Yet, who could blame him for potentially looking at what life looks like after football, and being eager to get there sooner than some may anticipate?
Only one man gets to be married to Taylor Swift, and Kelce is clearly loving his life right now. And with the success of the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce is expected to be a highly coveted broadcaster once he walks away from football. Kelce invited a ton of broadcasters to his wedding, prompting Awful Announcing to theorize that Kelce used his invite list “to curry favor with the NFL broadcasters he’d most like to work for” after he retires.
It remains to be seen if this will be Kelce’s last season, as it’s possible that he hasn’t made up his mind and Carter is getting ahead of himself. However, if he does ultimately decide to retire, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise given his age and everything he has going on off the field.
