Travis Kelce is back for another season in Kansas City at 37 years old. Now, he is the oldest tight end in the league by a comfortable margin. With Patrick Mahomes still throwing him the football and a receiver room full of question marks, should fantasy managers be drafting Kelce in 2026?
Should You Draft Travis Kelce in Fantasy Football?
As of early September, Kelce is going off the board in PFN’s Free Fantasy Mock Draft Simulator with an ADP of 99.8, just barely inside the top 100. PFN fantasy experts Jason Katz and Kyle Soppe are a little lower on him than the consensus. They have him as the 120th overall player in their fantasy football rankings. That has him at TE12, with a projected average of 10.49 points per game in a PPR format.
Kelce’s an interesting case because he’s been at least a top-10 tight end every single year in fantasy since 2014. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. He’s one of the greatest tight ends of all time. Certainly, the production has dipped a tiny bit. He had that consecutive streak of seasons from 2016 to 2022 where he had over 1,000 receiving yards every single year. He hasn’t had over 1,000 receiving yards in any of his last three seasons, but he still surpassed 800 receiving yards in each of those years. He’s coming off a season where, even though the numbers were down a little bit, he still played in every game, and he finished as the fifth overall tight end in fantasy football.
The Chiefs did make an upgrade at running back in Kenneth Walker III. Maybe that means they run the ball a little bit more than they did last year. But it’s still Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy. Kelce is still fighting with the same guys for targets. Kelce, even if he’s a step slower than he used to be, still has that elite route-running IQ and that elite spatial awareness against zone coverage, knowing how to work himself open and how to create separation with pure technique more than explosiveness against defensive backs.
I know he’s old. I know that his stats are declining. As the TE12, I’m taking Kelce. At that current ADP of 99.8, I’m taking him.
If you have him as a starter, be prepared to take his backup pretty soon after. It’s good to have multiple swings at the bat relatively early, taking a chance on a backup tight end, especially with an older guy like Kelce. But I think Kelce gives you a much higher floor than a lot of those other tight ends in that mix. For example, Isaiah Likely is coming in as TE10. I think Kelce has a much higher floor than someone like Likely, who’s unproven as a full-time starter.
Kelce has been a tremendous fantasy producer his entire career. Even though he’s not that guaranteed TE1 type of difference maker you’re going to take in the second or third round of your drafts, Kelce is still a very high-level producer. He’s somebody I am taking at his current ADP.
FANTASY RANKINGS: PFN’s FREE Fantasy PPR, Half-PPR, and Non-PPR Rankings
Travis Kelce’s Week 1 Fantasy Outlook
Analysis provided by PFN Analyst Kyle Soppe.
Fun fact: the Chiefs are a bottom-10 scoring offense since the beginning of the 2024 season.
I guess if you’re reading this, that’s less “fun” and more “concerning” given that you have exposure to their soon-to-be 37-year-old tight end.
Kelce has reached 13 PPR points in just 1 September game over the past two seasons (7 or fewer points in 4 of those 8 contests), and a sluggish start could well be in play again this season with Patrick Mahomes working his way back from an ACL, never mind an elite defense on the other side of the field.
That said, the future Hall of Famer did see his best game of 2025 come against these Broncos (Week 11: 9 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown). His red-zone usage tanked last season, and he recorded his fewest third-down receptions of his career: the annual profile is trending in the wrong direction, even if he is still capable of big games here and there.
I don’t have him ranked as a starter in standard formats this week, and I’ll need to see him burn me multiple times on that train of thought before adjusting the tier in which he resides.
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Where Kelce Ranks Among 2026 Tight Ends
- Dalton Kincaid | BUF
- Isaiah Likely | NYG
- Juwan Johnson | NO
- Jake Ferguson | DAL
- Dallas Goedert | PHI
- Travis Kelce | KC
- Mark Andrews | BAL
- Chig Okonkwo | WAS
- Hunter Henry | NE
- Brenton Strange | JAX
- Dalton Schultz | HOU
More rankings can be found in PFN's PPR Tight End Rankings.
