Travis Kelce’s NFL Friend Thinks He Will Run It Back With Chiefs for One Noble Reason

Former NFL player Will Compton shared his honest take on whether Travis Kelce will return to the Chiefs in 2026. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

No one perhaps knows Travis Kelce better than his big brother, Jason. A close second: his fiancée, Taylor Swift. A not-so-far-off third? Fellow podcaster and NFL friend Will Compton.

Amid growing rumors that Kelce could retire this year and immediately jump into a job in media, Compton shared his honest thoughts on what the Chiefs star would opt to do after wrapping up his 13th NFL campaign.

Compton responded to a post about NFL media partners “drooling” over Kelce’s potential retirement and seemed convinced that the 36-year-old would return to the Chiefs for one simple—and noble–reason.

“I bet Travis Kelce runs it back with the Chiefs for one more year,” Compton wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Everything waiting for him will still be there. He isn’t ending his career 6-11, 3rd in the division, the laughing stock of the NFL, & seeing the dynasty he helped build continue to burn. He can’t go out like that.”

I bet Travis Kelce runs it back with the Chiefs for one more year

Everything waiting for him will still be there

He isn’t ending his career 6-11, 3rd in the division, the laughing stock of the NFL, & seeing the dynasty he helped build continue to burn

He can’t go out like that https://t.co/CDietZ6JkD

— Will Compton (@_willcompton) March 6, 2026

Compton co-hosts the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast with Taylor Lewan, and they had Kelce on the pod last July during which they briefly discussed his NFL future.

“I’m focused on this one,” Kelce said, when asked whether 2025 would be his last year in the league. “I don’t know what next year is going to feel like. I don’t know what I’m going to feel like in March or April next year when I make that decision.”

Is Travis Kelce retiring in 2026? Here’s everything we know

So, when will Kelce finally reveal his decision? No one knows for sure. Ever since the Chiefs crashed and burned to a 6-11 finish and missed the playoffs altogether last season, Kelce has mostly stayed out of the spotlight and refused to say anything definitive about his future in Kansas City.

After the Chiefs’ season-finale loss to the Raiders in January, Kelce told reporters he was planning to “get away from the emotions” of the past year before weighing his retirement. A year prior, when the Chiefs got blown out by the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, Kelce made his decision to run it back by the end of February, telling Pat McAfee that he “couldn’t go out like that.”

Compton appears to think a similar narrative will play out in 2026, given that Kelce and the Chiefs suffered by far their most disappointing season in the Patrick Mahomes era.

But, in light of the Chiefs’ recent woes, some in the media don’t think it’s a good idea for Kelce to come back.

“I wouldn't do it,” former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum said about bringing Kelce back. “And that's when you're in the front office and you're a head coach, you have to make the honest and sober observation that you want to pay a player for what they are going to do, no what they've done. He is slowing down.”

Kelce played in all 17 games in 2025 and hauled in 76 catches for 851 yards and five touchdowns, numbers that don’t exactly jump off the page for someone who has grown to be Mahomes’ trustiest target over the last near-decade. Though his production may be steadily declining, there are nonetheless several non-tangibles that the three-time Super Bowl champ can offer the Chiefs: his steady and unwavering leadership. An inspiring voice in the locker room. A respected and beloved captain who shows up day in and day out boosting morale while also keeping his teammates in check.

It’ll be interesting to see what Kelce chooses to do this offseason, especially with Mahomes currently rehabbing a torn ACL. Whatever the veteran tight end decides, the Chiefs’ temporarily suspended dynasty—and Kelce’s personal career—will be at stake.

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