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Travis Kelce Gets Big Endorsement from Chiefs Leadership With Decision Looming

Chiefs tight end received praise from team's leadership.
Travis Kelce is facing a decision about next season.
Travis Kelce is facing a decision about next season. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Travis Kelce's future is still very much in question as the future Hall of Fame tight end takes some time deciding whether or not to return to the Kansas City Chiefs for another season. Despite there being tremendous interest in his decision, there's not a ton of solid information on which to base a guess to this point. The 36-year-old's most complete statement on the looming decision to date came a few weeks ago on his New Heights podcast, where he laid out what needs to be in place in order for him to run it back one more time with Patrick Mahomes.

“If my body can heal up, rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18-20/21 week run, I think I would do it in a heartbeat,” Kelce said. “I think right now is just finding that answer and seeing how the body feels after this game and kind of when it all settles down.”

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt was asked about the situation during a spot with Good Morning Football on Tuesday and offered a ringing endorsement regarding Kelce's ability to still help a team.

"There's no doubt in my mind that he can still play," Hunt said while letting it be known that the team hopes for a return.

Kelce was targeted 108 times and caught 76 passes this past season, his lowest totals in those categories since his second full year in the NFL. He did manage to score five touchdowns and a few of those were game-changing plays. It's tough to know exactly how much of his drop off in production is about him and how much is about Kansas City's disastrous season, which ended far short of expectations.


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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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