It has not been a good season for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Over the past several years, Travis Kelce has established himself as perhaps the most dominant tight end in the history of the league. But through the first three games of this season, that has certainly not been the case.
In three games this season, Kelce has just eight receptions for 69 yards and no touchdowns.
It’s a pretty horrible start to the season for the Hall of Fame tight end, and it’s led to a lot of reactions from the NFL world, especially considering his relationship with pop sensation Taylor Swift.
“As an organization, as a coach, you would have to question how dedicated Kelce is to the sport right now,” radio personality Mike Francesa said. “He has a lot going on in his life. His life has taken a radical change. You see him in commercials, you see him in photo opps. You see him now very conscious of how he’s dressed … and where the paparazzi are and everything else … and you wonder where does football and football preparation enter into that?
“It is a very fair question, when you see safeties strip the ball out of his hands in big spots, when you see listless pattern running from him, when you see him being a non-factor game after game, which is puzzling. But again, how much of that is on him, how much of that is on his preparation and his dedication?”
Longtime NFL analyst Todd McShay had a pretty harsh assessment of Kelce’s performance, claiming that Kelce looks “out of shape” due to al the time he spent with Taylor Swift.
“Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like, are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape? That he’s been partying all offseason? He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person, probably in the entire world. That he’s drinking… going to the U.S. Open, he’s got cocktails in…” McShay said.
“What I do know is: I want you to take a picture from preseason 2022 and then take a picture preseason 2024; they’re barely the same human being,” McShay added. “And everyone’s like, ‘We gotta get him the ball. Why isn’t he part of the offense? The defense is double-covering (him).’ Here’s the thing, bottom line with Kelce, the coverage and the respect he gets is the same; the athlete is not.”
“So we can all agree Travis Kelce is absolutely over playing football right?” sports personality Gunz of OutKick wrote on X this week.
“I’m just flabbergasted. I mean, one game, big deal. Two games, alright,” NBC analyst Chris Collinsworth said of the struggles between Kelce and Patrick Mahomes. “This is the third game now where we have not seen the magic of Mahomes and Kelce, and I can’t really explain that one.”
We’ll have to see whether or not Kelce can return to his usual dominant form this season.
