‘Hard to Stop’ Travis Kelce is Back to Leading KC Chiefs and Beating Father Time

In their thrilling Monday Night Football win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Kansas City Chiefs got valuable contributions from several players on offense. No one man stood out above the rest, as a multitude of veterans stepped up in the victory.

But with wideout DeAndre Hopkins and running back Kareem Hunt already getting their due props, it’s important to highlight what tight end Travis Kelce did in Week 9.

Playing 71 offensive snaps, Kelce was on the field more than any game in almost a calendar year. In the process, he set season-high marks in targets (16), receptions (14) and yards (100) in the passing game. The former was the second-highest figure of his career (17 twice), with the reception total matching only his Divisional Round playoff effort against the Jacksonville Jaguars in early 2023.

By just about every stretch imaginable, Kelce turned back the clock and delivered not only a vintage performance but one of the most impressive outputs of his Chiefs career. After the game, quarterback Patrick Mahomes spoke about the future Hall of Fame pass catcher making the most of his opportunities on Monday.

“I didn’t realize he had that many catches,” Mahomes said. “I mean, he just does a great job of finding space. I think having DeAndre out there, it takes pressure off him to where all the eyes aren’t on him the entire time. Then, I know it was out of bounds but then the deep shot to Xavier (Worthy) down the field and then being close with that one to J-Wat (Justin Watson), it spreads the defense out and you let guys like that work underneath. I’m almost positive he had a game with 16 receptions. It might have been a playoff game, though. But yeah, whenever he gets going, he’s hard to stop.”

Per Benjamin Solak of ESPN, Kelce was the first player age 35 or older to record 14 or more catches in a game. Not just for tight ends: anyone. This marks the continuation of a statistical renaissance for someone who started the season slow with less than 100 yards through his first three games. Including Week 4 when wide receiver Rashee Rice went down with a season-ending knee injury, Kelce has 44 receptions on 52 targets for 366 yards. Extrapolated over the course of a 17-game regular season, that’d make for a staggering 177 targets, 150 catches and 1,244 yards.

What Kelce is doing a month removed from his 35th birthday, midway through his 12th season in the NFL, with 189 games of mileage on his body, is bananas. There’s no other way to slice it. Considering that he’s lost a step (or even two) athletically, that makes it even more impressive. It’s completely unfair to expect this to be sustained – much of the Chiefs’ offense is them simply trying to get by with what they have – but the last handful of weeks are serving as a palate cleanser of sorts for discourse surrounding one of the sports all-time greats.

As Joshua Brisco of Kansas City Chiefs On SI wrote last week, reports of Kelce’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

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