In addition to an NFL first, Chiefs’ Travis Kelce could set pair of tight end records
The NFL’s leading receiver in 2020 is a tight end.
Through 14 weeks of the NFL season, no one has more receiving yards than the Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, who has 1,250. That’s 70 more than Seattle’s D.K. Metcalf and 83 yards more than Buffalo’s Stefon Diggs.
If Kelce ends the season as the NFL’s leader in receiving yards, it would be the first time a tight end would win the league’s receiving crown.
This week, Peter Schrager of “Good Morning Football” gushed about Kelce’s achievements this season and wondered if he would take the mantle of best tight end ever from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Rob Gronkowski.
“He’s so good that we take it for granted,” Schrager said of Kelce. “I know we love Gronk and Gronk was a fantastic tight end and Gronk still can play. I don’t know if Gronk was ever as unstoppable as Travis Kelce has been the last 24 months.
“This guy, any time they need a play, he finds a way to get open, he makes the play and he moves the sticks. ... He might be the very best tight end that we’ve seen in the league, I think maybe ever.“
In addition to potentially becoming the first tight end to lead the NFL in receiving yards for a season, Kelce is the only tight end in history with five straight 1,000-yard campaigns.
Kelce also has had five games this season with at least seven receptions, 100 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown. The NFL said that’s the most such games in a single season by a tight end since at least 1950, when tight ends were mainly blockers.
There are two other NFL tight end records that Kelce could claim this season.
Receptions
The Eagles’ Zach Ertz set the record for most receptions by a tight end, with 116 in 2018.
Kelce has 90 receptions this fall and is on pace for 111. To match Ertz’s mark, Kelce would need 26 more catches, a little under nine per game.
He’s had nine or more catches twice this season — at the Chargers on Sept. 20 (nine) and against Carolina on Nov. 8 (10).
Kelce is on the cusp of having the sixth 100-reception season by a tight end, and he would be the only player in NFL history to do it twice.
- 116: Eagles’ Zach Ertz in 2018
- 110: Cowboys’ Jason Witten in 2012
- 103: Chiefs’ Travis Kelce in 2018
- 102: Chiefs’ Tony Gonzalez in 2004
- 100: Colts’ Dallas Clark in 2009
Receiving yards
Kelce’s 1,250 receiving yards averages out to 96.2 per game. If he maintains that pace, he would finish with 1,539, which would shatter the NFL record for a tight end.
Here are the top three seasons for a tight end in terms of receiving yards:
- 1,377: 49ers’ George Kittle in 2018
- 1,336: Kelce in 2018
- 1,327: Gronkowski in 2011 with the Patriots
Kelce is just 122 yards shy of Kittle’s NFL record and 86 behind his own Chiefs record.
Could the record fall Sunday against the New Orleans Saints? Don’t bet against it.
Kelce has four games with 127 or more receiving yards already this season.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 9:45 AM.
