Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is obviously one of the biggest stars on the team, but the Chiefs would actually have a very good reason to cut him from the roster following their playoff run this season.
During the offseason, Travis Kelce signed a new contract with the Kansas City Chiefs that made him the highest-paid tight end in the league. However, he certainly did not play up to that contract this season.
Kelce finished the regular season with the least productive statistical performance of his career since becoming a starter, with his receiving numbers down across nearly every metric.
The veteran tight end recorded fewer yards per game, yards per reception, and yards after the catch, had a shorter average depth of target, and scored fewer touchdowns this season than in any previous year.
Given his gigantic dip in production and his absolutely massive paycheck and salary cap hit, it would actually benefit the team to cut him during the offseason.
This week, Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Department named Kelce as one of the team’s most likely “cap casualties” this offseason, pointing out that the Chiefs can save a lot of cap space if they do decide to part ways with Kelce.
“Cutting Travis Kelce is obviously a long shot. … However, the Chiefs would be able to create $17.3 million in cap space by releasing Kelce,” Bleacher Report’s NFL Scouting Department wrote.
While this isn’t exactly likely considering what Kelce has meant to the team over the past several years, it would certainly be a possibility if Kelce chose to retire.
“This is much more likely to come into play if Kelce decides to retire. The star tight end has wavered on his retirement stance in media appearances. If he decides to walk away, the Chiefs have structured his contract in a way that’s going to help them with their cap space,” Bleacher Report wrote.
As for the chances that Kelce could retire, he has certainly left that possibility open.
“I love everything that I’m doing … but at the end of the day, I’m not having that extreme success on the field,” Kelce said on the Stephen A. Smith Show. “I’m excited for these next couple of games … to finish this season off. I’ll re-evaluate it like I always do.”
That said, Kelce said he would still most likely return to the Kansas City Chiefs next season.
“I’ll probably tell myself how much I love this thing, and I’ll come back next year,” Kelce added.
Given Kelce’s performance this season, his current contract, the team’s cap situation, and his recent comments, it sounds like there’s a real possibility that this playoff run could be his last with the Chiefs.
