Tag: Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce credits Chiefs’ culture for desire to finish career in Kansas City

The right people and the right culture kept Travis Kelce on the path to be a Chief for life.

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Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce is the third core player to sign a contract extension with the team this offseason, following QB Patrick Mahomes and DT Chris Jones.

But why are players so eager to stay in Kansas City? Yes, they have one of the best young quarterbacks in the game. Yes, they’re coming off of a championship-winning season, but there’s more to it than that. They have the right culture and the right people in the building. Players like Kelce simply want to remain a part of it.

“I think there are a lot of reasons, man,” Kelce told reporters of his desire to stay in Kansas City. “One is because we got great guys in the locker room. We got great guys in the facility, great people in the facility. And overall, it’s a fun atmosphere every single time you come to work. Guys don’t want to leave that. Guys want to keep building off of that. And it’s a beautiful thing when you have ownership trust in you, want to make change with you, in terms of the season and the community. And then on top of that just going out there playing football with guys who come to work every single day and fight their tail off for you. It’s a beautiful thing. You know what, this community, Kansas City, I love you and I’m thankful that I’m going to be here for the next six years.”

The great people in the Chiefs organization all contribute to the culture that players want to be a part of on and off the football field. The front office, coaching staff, ownership, business staff, training staff and players all share a sort-of amebic relationship. They all are working toward the same goal and because of that, the players have trust that contract extensions, like the three we’ve seen this offseason, will get done.

“It’s a blessing, man. It’s a blessing,” Kelce said. “The front office, Brett Veach, Coach Reid, Clark Hunt, Mark Donovan, the guys that really put this organization together and get everybody on the same page, we’ve got all the trust in the world that those guys are going to get it done and make it worthwhile while we’re here. I can’t thank them enough for the opportunities that we’ve had up to date. We’re making our effort every single day to make the best yet to come, man.”

Kelce believes the best is yet to come for him and his teammates. Since Kelce arrived in Kansas City in 2013, the Chiefs have won 77 regular-season games and have a 4-4 record in the postseason. Kelce feels fortunate that he’s been surrounded by such greatness to this point in his career. He even referred to it as a “circle of success.”

“Being very fortunate that I’m on the field, that’s the biggest thing, man,” Kelce said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have great teammates around me, great coaches to put me in positions to succeed. And then on top of that, great athletic trainers in the training room. You can’t underestimate or leave them out of the puzzle because rehab and keeping guys on the field is arguably half the job in the NFL. We know how physically demanding [the NFL] is. I’ve been very fortunate to have this circle of success around me. It just keeps getting better and better, knowing that the front office and Coach Reid are bringing in guys that are going to help us win.”

In some ways, each of the contract extensions signed in Kansas City this offseason were considered team-friendly. They were structured in a way that made sense for the team and the players. Guys like Kelce were willing to agree to that to keep this team together and winning football games.

“The first thing is I think we all know that we trust the front office, Brett Veach, Andy Reid, and Clark Hunt, to keep the core,” Kelce said. “We trusted that they were going to be able to make it make sense for all of the players, which they did. They held their end of the bargain. We’re very thankful that we still have the core going into this year and for a few years ahead.”

The trust that each facet of the franchise has in each other, that’s how you know that there is something special brewing in Kansas City. That the talk of dynasties and championships to come isn’t just hyperbole or overconfidence. Even with reaching football’s highest mountain top in 2020, Kelce says the goal remains the same for the entire organization.

“We all have one goal in mind and that’s to play football and play at a high level every Sunday,” Kelce said as he signed off. “Kansas City, I love y’all baby!”

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Andy Reid praises Chiefs TE Travis Kelce: ‘He still comes to work every day wanting to get better’

Travis Kelce remains as committed to his craft today as he was when he first arrived in Kansas City.

The contract extension between Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs was made official today, ensuring the star tight end will be under contract for six more seasons.

It’s been quite the journey for the third-round draft pick in 2013. Kelce went from a rambunctious rookie to a veteran leader on the team. He went from getting ejected for throwing his towel at an official to being humble and level-headed on the field. He went from being considered just another guy, to putting together four-consecutive 1000-yard receiving seasons, something no tight end has ever before accomplished.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is elated to see Kelce stay in Kansas City. He described Kelce’s growth as a player and leader as he enters his eighth season in the NFL during Friday’s media availability.

“Well, just the fact that he’s been voted captain — playoff captain — the last couple of years. Three years I think. That says everything,” Reid explained. “He has grown. We’ve watched him — everybody has here — grow before their eyes. Fans included.”

Reid praised the thing still makes Kelce such a special football player to this day. It’s a characteristic that he shares with his brother, Jason Kelce, who Reid also coached in Philadelphia.

“He still comes to work every day wanting to get better and so you love that part of it,” Reid continued. “He brings energy every day. I’ve been lucky enough to coach him and his brother and they’re both that way. They’re just wired where they want to be the best, but yet enjoy playing the game like no other, like you’re playing in the backyard type of thing.”

Kelce’s continued commitment to his craft is a point emphasis for Reid, but also the energy that he brings. Be it during practice or on the field, he plays the game with a sense of joy and passion that is akin to playing football in the backyard. It’s part of what makes Kelce, but also this team so special. They have the ability to have fun with what they’re doing but also push themselves to get better. It’s a combination that has Kelce at the top of the food chain in Kansas City, earning the utmost respect from his peers, the front office and the coaching staff.

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Travis Kelce positioned to become Chiefs’ all-time receiving leader

Kelce’s new contract extension sets him up to make some Kansas City Chiefs history.

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Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce’s contract extension could be looked back on as an important piece of franchise history.

After the next six seasons, with Patrick Mahomes as his quarterback, Kelce could be among rare company in the Kansas City history books. He already ranks highly among franchise greats in multiple receiving categories.

Kelce’s 6,465 career receiving yards has him ranked just behind WR Henry Marshall for fifth all-time in franchise history. With 507 career receptions, Kelce is third all-time behind WR Dwayne Bowe. He’ll likely pass Bowe to take second all-time within the first three weeks of the 2020 NFL season. In terms of touchdowns, Kelce is sixth all-time with 37, also lagging just behind Bowe.

So where will Kelce rank in these three categories by the time his contract is up? He has a chance to hold the top spot or just below the top spot in each of these categories by 2026 when he next becomes an unrestricted free agent at 35 years old.

Let’s start with receiving yards. Kelce, in his six healthy seasons, has averaged 1,055.7 receiving yards per season. If he stays the course with his average receiving yards, he’ll have well over 12,000 yards by 2026, passing TE Tony Gonzalez at 10,940 to become the all-time receiving yards leader in Kansas City.

In terms of receptions, Kelce has averaged 84 receptions per year thus far in Kansas City. If he continues to rack up catches at the same rate over the next six years, he’ll have 1,011 receptions. That’d put him No. 1 in franchise history, passing Gonzalez (916) as well.

As for touchdowns, Kelce will have to beat his career average of six per season if he wants to pass Gonzalez. Right now, he’s pacing to come in at 73 touchdowns by the end of the 2025 season. That’s three less than Gonzalez, who also owns the top spot.

There is some evidence to suggest his pace will increase in all three of these categories moving forward. Kelce put up career two-year highs in receptions, yards and touchdowns in the past two years. What’s been different about the past two years? Just some guy named Mahomes throwing him the football.

The decision to extend Kelce won’t just give the Chiefs a chance to retain one of their best players right now. It’ll give Kelce a chance to become the greatest receiver to ever play for the team thus far.

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How Travis Kelce’s extension with the Chiefs impacts the Eagles two-headed TE attack of Ertz, Goedert

Travis Kelce’s extension provides an outline for Zach Ertz’s next deal

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The Philadelphia Eagles now have a contract conundrum at the tight end position, but it’s a problem that can be solved with two fair contract extensions that secure the present and the future.

On Thursday the 49ers and Chiefs broke the bank for their young stars, as San Francisco gave George Kittle a five-year, $75 million deal, while the Chiefs gave Travis Kelce a four-year, $57 million deal to help reset the tight end market and give the Eagles a basepoint for Ertz’s negotiations.

Kelce’s deal is worth between $14 million and $15 million per year in new money average, similar to Kittle’s $15 million per year average.

Ertz finished the last season third among tight ends in receptions (88), fourth in yards (916), and tied for fourth in touchdowns (6).

During the past three seasons, Ertz ranks third in receptions (278), third in yards (2,903), and second in touchdowns (22). That normally would make the case for Ertz to get a similar deal to his two counterparts, but Kittle is younger and more dynamic than both his counterparts, while the Eagles now have the pleasure of extending two top-10 tight ends.

Ertz reportedly turned down a deal that would have paid him $10.5 million per year and with two years left on his current deal, Howie Roseman and company have no pressure for a new deal.

Ertz’s legacy puts pressure on the Eagles and a guy who’ll be the all-time receptions leader, a future Hall of Famer and caught the game-winning score in a franchise’s first Super Bowl usually gets the benefit of the doubt in regards to a team wanting him to retire in that one cingular jersey.

The Eagles can let 2020 play out and see where Ertz stands physically after turning 30-years of age or they can strike now and lock up both of their star tight ends using the leverage of legacy and playing for one team to help get a hometown discount from Ertz.

The Eagles could easily give Ertz a three-year, $39 million extension, with about $22 million guaranteed, ensuring that the star tight end will eclipse $10 million per season while still getting paid like the third-best tight end in the NFL.

The move would reduce Ertz’s almost $13 million salary-cap hits for 2020 and 2021 while freeing up money for his running mate.

Goedert is still just 25, he has two more years left on his rookie contract and yet he’s is already a top 10 tight end in the NFL. The better blocker of the two, the Eagles will let things play out for the second-round pick because the framework of a new deal can’t be discussed until after the 2020 NFL season.

Austin Hooper no longer owns the biggest TE contract

Hooper’s deal got blown away by Kittle and Kelce

Earlier this offseason the Cleveland Browns made Austin Hooper the highest-paid tight end in NFL history. Hooper signed a four-year, $42 million contract to leave the Atlanta Falcons and join the Browns.

The $10.5 million per year represented the highest annual salary on a multi-year contract ever paid to a tight end. The tense there changed from present to past, thanks to two fresh new contracts to All-Pros this week.

The new title-holder is George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers. Kittle signed a five-year, $75 million deal that pays him an average of $15 million per season. His contract dwarfs Hooper’s former record-setting deal.

So does the new contract for Chiefs star Travis Kelce. The Cleveland Heights native will stay in Kansas City for four more years for a total of $57.25 million, or $14.31 million per season.

Hooper went from first to third in the matter of a few hours this week. If Hunter Henry of the Chargers agrees to a long-term deal that tops his current $10.6 million franchise tag guarantee, Hooper will drop to fourth.

It helps put some context in the Hooper deal for Cleveland and why the team was willing to shell out what seemed like crazy money at the time for the Pro Bowler.

 

How the Chiefs worked the salary cap to keep their best players

From a few dollars in salary cap space to the wherewithal needed to sign their best players, here’s how the Chiefs are building a dynasty.

When the Kansas City Chiefs walked out of Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium holding the Lombardi Trophy on February 2nd, they knew there was work to be done in the immediate future. Yes, the franchise had won its first Super Bowl in 50 years, but head coach Andy Reid and general manager Brett Veach aren’t just looking at this as a one-year wonder — they believe they may be in possession of the NFL’s next dynasty.

And with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, they may be right. However, for that to happen, there were important players to be re-signed, and not a ton to work with at the time. There was Mahomes’ long-term future. There was tight end Travis Kelce, who was set to become a free agent after the 2021 season. And there was defensive lineman Chris Jones, who played at an MVP level in the Super Bowl, has established himself as one of the best players at his position(s) in the league, and was set to become a free agent before the Chiefs gave him the franchise tag.

And there wasn’t a lot in the wallet. As Kevin Clark of The Ringer astutely put it:

The new league year set a salary cap of $198.2 million, which gave the Chiefs and every other team a base paradigm. Then, it was about getting things done.

Having Mahomes on his rookie deal was an advantage as it would be for any NFL team, but the Chiefs also knew that as goes Mahomes, so goes the potential dynasty. So, the first thing Veach did was to work a new deal for Mahomes that ostensibly keeps him in Kansas City through 2031. Mahomes carries a 2020 cap hit of just $5,346,538, per OverTheCap.com, and while things start to rise up precipitously after that as part of the contract, the deal is more team-friendly than one might assume for a 10-year, $503 million deal on its face.

The interesting aspect of the deal, per the numbers Pelissero presented, is that the first five years of the deal are pretty much guaranteed except for injury (there’s a $140 million injury guarantee built into the contract), and then, the cash and cap hits take a real uptick.

As Pelissero also points out, the structure of the rolling guarantees have the salaries and bonuses vesting before they’re due.

To say that Mahomes “has outs” if guarantee mechanisms aren’t exercised, as the Steinberg tweet does, may simply mean that starting in 2027, the Chiefs could find it prohibitive to pay the rolling bonuses from a cash and cap perspective. They could encourage Mahomes to renegotiate, or, per that possible language, Mahomes could become a free agent. There is a no-trade clause in the contract; it is not known whether there are prohibitions from placing the franchise tag on Mahomes in any year that it may be a little too beneficial on the team end.

In any event, the next step was to get Jones under contract. The defensive lineman was set to make $16.126 million on a one-year tag, and since that number is fully guaranteed, the cap hit would have been the same. Instead, the Chiefs re-upped Jones with a four-year, $80 million deal with $37.626 million in full guarantees, and a $60 million injury guarantee. With that deal, Jones dropped his 2020 cap hit from $16.126 million to $15,001 million. Not a huge savings, but getting your best defensive player not named Tyrann Mathieu happy and under contract is a Good Thing.

In winning the Super Bowl, and making it clear that the intention is to have the infrastructure to win more, the Chiefs also opened themselves up to what one might call the “Patriots Discount,” the unique phenomenon Bill Belichick’s team has enjoyed over the last two decades. Multiple players took less money to play for the Patriots than they would have to join other rosters because they knew there was a better chance they would be utilized correctly, their Super Bowl window was bigger, and thus, their overall value would increase.

Receiver Sammy Watkins, who was set to carry a salary cap charge of $21 million in 2020, restructured his contract to save $5 million in cap space, which gave the team the wherewithal to sign its draft class with no additional cap burden.

Watkins seemed excited at the prospect.

With a great season, and perhaps another Super Bowl win, Watkins can enter free agency next year at age 27, with the world as his proverbial oyster.

Then, it was time to do something nice for tight end Travis Kelce, which the Chiefs did on the same day the 49ers re-set the market at that position by giving George Kittle a five-year, $75 million deal. Kelce’s extension adds four years and $57.25 million to his contract, though there’s no new money in 2020.

If that’s the case, Kelce’s 2020 cap hit of $11,218,400 is just as manageable as it was before. And it’s always a good idea to make your half-billion-dollar quarterback happy.

Thus, the Chiefs turned $177 in March into a remaining cap space of $13,921,310 in August. From the cost of a half-decent dinner for two to the scratch needed to sign one’s draft picks, and a bit of flexibility beyond? It’s entirely possible that Veach, Reid, and the cap geniuses in Kansas City’s front office have done what they need to do to create that dynasty.

Of course, what happens with the 2020 season, and the estimated salary cap shortfalls in 2021 as a result of a COVID-related revenue hit? Weightier matters entirely, and the Chiefs could be in a major hole if the 2021 cap comes in at around $175 million, as anticipated. At that point, all involved will have to have an even sharper contractual eye. But for now, Chiefs fans should be eminently confident in the team’s shot-callers. That confidence has been earned.

Travis Kelce, George Kittle deals setting up Mark Andrews for huge payday

The Baltimore Ravens could have a hard time keeping tight end Mark Andrews after Travis Kelce and George Kittle sign massive deals.

The tight end market has been completely reset this week, which has to be music to Mark Andrews’ ears.

The San Francisco 49ers first gave tight end George Kittle a five-year extension worth $75 million. Then the Kansas City Chiefs gave tight end Travis Kelce a four-year extension worth $57.25 million. Though Andrews is two years away from being an unrestricted free agent and a year away from an extension even being possible, the bar has been set for what top tight ends earn, of which Andrews is on the precipice of becoming.

Andrews had an outstanding 2019 season campaign that wrapped with his first Pro Bowl nomination. He led the Ravens in all major receiving categories, catching 64 passes for 852 yards and 10 touchdowns. Andrews ranked seventh among all tight ends in receptions, fifth in yards, and first in touchdown receptions last season. With another year at that level of production, Baltimore would be hard-pressed to argue Andrews deserves any less than $14 million a year on his next deal.

But what’s good for Andrews isn’t necessarily a huge positive for the concept the Baltimore Ravens can keep all their star players. Andrews joins cornerback Marlon Humphrey, left tackle Ronnie Stanley, outside linebacker Matthew Judon, and quarterback Lamar Jackson as the Ravens looking at massive contract numbers when their rookie deals wrap up over the next two years.

Stanley has made a serious claim as the top offensive tackle in the league, with Laremy Tunsil’s recent deal clocking in at $22 million a year. Humphrey is one of the top cornerbacks in the league, earning a Pro Bowl nod last season despite playing out of position. Top cornerback deals have gone above $16 million a year with the Ravens just giving Marcus Peters $14 million a year. Judon is currently on the franchise tag, which holds a $16.808 million cap hit for 2020. Patrick Mahomes’ recent mega-deal could see Jackson earn more than $500 million.

Though the salary cap was expected to explode under the new CBA, the expected loss of revenue from the coronavirus pandemic could see the cap actually drop down massively. If that happens, it could be very difficult for the Ravens to re-sign all their young stars when the time comes.

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Report: Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs agree on four-year extension

Travis Kelce is going to the pay window. The Chiefs have agreed to an extension with their star tight end.

George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers opened the vault for tight end extensions, apparently.

Hours after the Niners’ great TE got his contract extension, it is being reported the Kansas City Chiefs have worked out future plans with their great tight end, Travis Kelce.

Kelce would be the third Kansas City star to get rich thus far this offseason as Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones already have worked out terms with the team.

How George Kittle’s 5-year, $75 million deal with the 49ers impacts Eagles TE Zach Ertz

George Kittle signs 5-year, $75 million deal with the 49ers

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In a move that finally set the market for the new age of NFL tight ends, the San Francisco 49ers have agreed to a five-year, $75 million contract extension with George Kittle, which includes an $18 million signing bonus.

According to Over The Cap, Kittle’s $15 million per season average now resets the market after Austin Hooper and Hunter Henry’s deal.

No preseason, no problem: Travis Kelce has zero doubts Chiefs will be ready for opener

SportsPulse: Kansas City’s tight end Travis Kelce told Mackenzie Salmon he has zero doubts about being prepared for the regular season despite having zero preseason games. He also detailed how different training camp has been amidst the pandemic.

SportsPulse: Kansas City’s tight end Travis Kelce told Mackenzie Salmon he has zero doubts about being prepared for the regular season despite having zero preseason games. He also detailed how different training camp has been amidst the pandemic.