Chiefs’ general manager details an irreplaceable aspect of tight end Travis Kelce
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kelce signed a three-year deal that effectively functions as a one-year contract.
- Veach says Kelce’s positivity uplifts teammates and the organization.
- Kelce enters his 14th season holding multiple Chiefs receiving records.
Future Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce recently returned to the Chiefs on a “three-year” contract that effectively functions as a one-year deal, allowing Kansas City to spread the financial hit over the next three seasons.
With the way the contract is structured, it seems as though this is indeed the 14th (and final) season of the 36-year-old Kelce’s NFL career.
The Chiefs drafted Kelce in the third round of the 2013 NFL Draft. At the time, Brett Veach was on the club’s personnel staff as a pro and college analyst.
The team’s general manager since 2017, Veach this week joined ESPN’s Peter Schrager on “The Schrager Hour” at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix.
Veach wasn’t shy about his affection for the returning tight end.
“It’s a business, and it’s cutthroat, but just uplifting people around you,” Veach said of Kelce. “You could go in there with an attitude of, ‘We’re in this together, and we’re going to uplift each other.’ He puts a smile on someone’s face every single day. It doesn’t matter if you win a game by three touchdowns or if you lose a game.”
Kelce has flirted with retirement the past two offseasons, but two straight disappointing finishes for the Chiefs may have played a role in his decision to come back one last time this fall.
“Everything he does, he does with a smile,” Veach said. “It’s easy to lose sight of that, and get into this headspace where it’s always negative all the time. He just keeps a positive spin and uplifting spin on everything he does.”
Kelce currently holds franchise records for targets, receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns — stats he’ll have a chance to pad in 2026. But Veach relishes the fact that he’ll get another season of Kelce’s off-the-field leadership.
“I’m glad he’s not retiring,” he said. “When he does, that (positivity’s) going to be almost impossible to replace.”
