The Kansas City Chiefs and star tight end Travis Kelce have agreed to a new contract extension that made him the highest paid NFL player in the position as it is two years. worth $34.25 million with $17 million fully guaranteed for this season. Chiefs general manager Brett Veach spoke to the media Monday about what the organization did in the NFL Draft, but made sure to talk about his new contract adjusted player in Kelce.
There is no doubt that Kelce has done a lot for the Chiefs organization as he has been the main offensive weapon for star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. What has resulted in a career so far that makes him one of the best tight ends of all time, a statement echoed by Veach during his press conference as posted by the team's website.
“Wanted to start off by congratulating Travis Kelce on his contract adjustment, signed it here a few minutes ago. Hard to put in to words what Travis means to this organization, this city, it was certainly a priority to adjust his contract for us,” Veach said. “It was something that was important to Clark, so very fitting that Travis is now the highest-paid tight end in these two years. Want to thank his agents Michael and Greg for all their hard work. Again, just a really special day and moment for this organization to once again recognize arguably one of the greatest tight ends to ever do it.”
Veach calls Kelce an “outlier” in knocking his contract out of the way
It's looking like it will be one of the busier off seasons for the Chiefs as they have other players to sign to contracts, but it was important for the organization to lock up Kelce. Veach called the superstar an “outlier” as they wanted to “knock right out of the park” with his contract and focus on the others at a later time.
“We do have some other guys coming up and like always, when the draft settles down, we'll have a chance to address all those players and work through that,” Veach said about wanting to focus on keeping Kelce with the Chiefs. “Travis is an outlier here, i think we all know that, when you talk about Travis and his career and his legacy here, this is something we wanted to knock right out of the park early on and then shift to the younger guys. Every now and then, you have one of these guys that are outliers — and certainly Travis is one of those players. It's funny, it's not even May yet and today we had a chance to get out there in phase two and guys were out there running around. Travis was the first guy in line, and he looked like he was 28 years old.”
Last season with Kansas City, Kelce caught 93 passes for 984 yards to go along with five touchdowns which could be seen as a down season as before, he had seven straight season of over 1000 receiving yards. The only concern people have about Kelce isn't his ability to play football, but if he can still perform at a high level like he has done.
Kelce's age a concern for the Chiefs? Veach explains his reasoning.
It is important to remember that Kelce is 34-years old, so the contract extension would go until he is 36 which for any player in the NFL besides quarterback, that's considered the twilight years of one's career. Even Veach admits this during his press conference saying that the “odds of someone playing this far into their 30s is very low,” but mentioned that it does happen in certain instances as he considers Kelce a “unicorn.”
“Again, the odds of someone playing this far into their 30s is very low, but it does happen, and it happens with unicorns in the profession, and Travis is one of those,” Veach said. “We'll certainly celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing even longer. We'll just have to wait and see, but he's shown no signs of slowing down. Everyone notices the kind of postseason he had; he just found an extra gear. These special players are always able to find that extra gear and again if anybody can do it, Travis can.”
The position requires a lot of physical attention and pain so a player looking to play well in to their 30s has come rare for tight ends, though there have been good ones like Tony Gonzales who played until the age of 37 years old and was solid. According to NFL.com, “the former Chief and Falcon had three seasons of 800-plus yards at age 35-plus, including a 930-yarder in 2012 at 36.”
Kelce looking to bring a third straight Super Bowl to Kansas City
At this point, it seems like Kelce will be in Kansas City until the end of his career as two parties don't want to ruin a relationship that has given the team three Super Bowl championships and he's been a huge reason why. In a video posted to the Chiefs X (formerly known as Twitter) page, Kelce is excited about getting back to work and even said he feels good.
“Back at it again, baby! Feels good to be in KC, I remember coming here 12 years ago, it's an honor and a pleasure,” Kelce said. “It’s an honor and a pleasure, and I can’t wait to get after it these next two years. No better than right now, getting fired up for this year, just got on the field with the boys, we're back at it. Chiefs forever.”
If there is one person with just as much excitement as Kelce and Veach, it has to be Mahomes who gets to keep throwing to his favorite target by far. Especially in last season's playoffs where while it could be argued that Kelce had a down year, he turned on another gear in the postseason as the chemistry with Mahomes was unstoppable.
“I told yall I’ll never let him leave!!,” Mahomes said on his social media account. “Congrats my guy!”
The Chiefs look to do what no other team has done before in history which is to win three straight Super Bowls after beating the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers the past two seasons. If they do end up winning it all again, the finger will surely be pointed at the dynamic duo of Mahomes and Kelce.
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