Travis Kelce’s last home game? It’s a relevant question beyond its sentimentality

Travis Kelce drove into work this week, a couple of days shy of the Chiefs’ final home game of the season, and that’s when he says the question we’ve been asking him is the question that popped into his mind.

Is this it?

It wasn’t unprompted. On Christmas night, shortly after the Chiefs’ 20-13 loss to the Broncos, Kelce shared exactly why and when it struck him.

“I saw how much the Powerball was,” he said, “I was like, ‘Man, if I could just win that, I wouldn’t have to work another day in my life.’”

A joke, of course.

The reality? Kelce isn’t talking about his future, because he says he won’t let himself reach a decision on his future until after the season. There is one game left. There are conversations with family and friends left, too.

Which means the only important thing you could possibly glean from the Broncos grinding out an ugly win against what’s left of this year’s Chiefs will have to wait.

But Kelce certainly seemed to take an extra few seconds to soak in the crowd’s loud ovation as he strutted through the tunnel during pre-game introductions. At one point, he came to a complete stop and spread his arms out wide, one to each side.

You couldn’t help but wonder if he recognized it might be his last time walking through that tunnel.

And after his first reception of the game, a third-down catch that secured a first down, he smiled and waved at the camera.

Hello?

Or goodbye?

It’s a pertinent question, and for reasons beyond emotion or sentimentality.

The Chiefs have needed Travis Kelce this year, and part of their evaluation of the worst season in Andy Reid’s tenure — heading into Las Vegas next week with more than a puncher’s chance of a top-10 draft pick — ought to ask themselves why.

We don’t know the future. But we know the Chiefs navigated past 15 weeks with a 36-year-old tight end as the most reliable option they have.

Or had.

Time will tell.

Kelce will finish this year as the Chiefs’ season leader in catches and yards, and he’ll enter the finale in Las Vegas next week tied for the team lead with five touchdowns. It’s remarkable what he’s done at age 36.

It is one of the best seasons for a tight end at that age in NFL history, which makes sense because he’s one of the best tight ends at any age in NFL history — and he spent last offseason getting himself into better shape than he had the offseason before that.

But when players are old enough to justifiably receive questions about whether they’re contemplating retirement — and to push the answers into the offseason — it’s not the same compliment to the team to call him a No. 1 option.

This offense has needed Travis Kelce, and it would’ve probably operated more efficiently if it didn’t need him quite so much.

That’s not all on the Chiefs as a team.

It’s on receiver Rashee Rice, who took himself out of the lineup for six weeks because of a dumb offseason decision before a concussion took him out of the lineup for the final three games. Rice has played in just 12 games over the past two years combined. You can be the most talented option on the team, but you cannot be its most reliable when you’re not on the field.

It’s on receiver Xavier Worthy, who will finish his second NFL season with fewer catches and possibly fewer yards than he recorded in his first. He has scored just one touchdown all season, but the white painted line he seems to have trouble finding more than the goal line is the sideline.

We have spent so much time wondering whether the Chiefs will enter a post-Kelce era next season that we’ve glossed over whether they’re truly prepared for it.

They haven’t solved what this whole thing will look like without Kelce yet.

And Thursday night provided yet one more reminder.

Throughout the game, the Broncos took Pat Surtain II, the best cover cornerback not only on their roster but probably any NFL roster, and they put him on Kelce on several key downs. Thus, they had the reigning NFL defensive player of the year, who has played 84% of his snaps as a wide cornerback this season, shift inside to defend a 36-year-old tight end — leaving Worthy, Hollywood Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster to others further down Denver’s depth chart.

As the Chiefs tried one last gasp after the Broncos scored a late, go-ahead touchdown, Surtain lined up against Kelce in the slot on third down. And third-string quarterback Chris Oladokun still went his way.

“I’d be a fool not to lean on him a little bit,” Oladokun said.

He, in fact, went Kelce’s way four times on that final drive. He completed three of those passes for 23 yards.

It was the Chiefs’ longest drive of the game.

Oladokun leaning on Kelce was the Chiefs’ best option. Like it was for injured starting QB Patrick Mahomes much of the season.

The question in all our minds — whether this is it for Kelce — brings about an entirely different set of questions for the team.

What next?

Sam McDowell

The Kansas City Star

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Sam McDowell is a columnist for The Star who has covered Kansas City sports for more than a decade. He has won national awards for columns, features and enterprise work. The Headliner Awards named him the 2024 national sports columnist of the year.