How will Travis Kelce’s role change in 2025? Chiefs GM Veach lends perspective
Between what seem to have been deftly targeted free-agent signings and NFL Draft selections, the Chiefs sure appear to have addressed some vital needs since the astonishing Super Bowl collapse that exposed flaws they somehow hadn’t succumbed to along the way.
That’s all so fresh and shiny and front-of-mind that it tends to blur the now weeks-old but arguably most substantial development of the offseason to date in terms of what it will mean in 2025:
Franchise pillar and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Travis Kelce deciding to return for a 13th season.
It’s especially pivotal after Kelce sounded very much like a man who had to convince himself instead of someone yearning for more; he certainly had me thinking his retirement was more likely than not.
“If I do come back” was the operative term he used speaking on the “New Heights” podcast he co-hosts with his brother, Jason, shortly after the 40-22 Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia. But most strikingly and somewhat poignantly, he added:
“As you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success that you once used to have, man, it’s a tough pill to swallow. And then on top of that, to not be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, man … it’s just a tough reality.”
So it’s great that he’s returning, particularly since a notably subpar game in an embarrassing loss is no way for a legend to go out.
Moreover, his outsized and now-global persona has a dynamic ripple impact on the culture, brand and teammates that’s good for the collective soul of fans.
And the fact he made this decision through the fuel of that loss suggests he’s attacking the offseason to “create the beast,” as he put it on the March 5 New Heights, and “give everything I’ve got.”
Still, knowing just what he’s got is another matter as he enters the final season of his current contract with no assurance he’ll play beyond 2025.
While hardly as unclear as who will be ready to do what how fast from the new draft class, the enigma of Kelce now is in processing all of this at once:
He’s a 35-year-old man with diminishing burst and ability to break tackles … who still had 97 catches last season.
He was vintage so-called “Playoff Travis” with seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown in the AFC Divisional Round game against Houston … and was so off-kilter in the Super Bowl that he’s been left cursing himself re-watching his game clips.
The contradictions make it natural to wonder how that will translate as the Chiefs try to revive an offense that the last two years has been 15th in the NFL in scoring — after leading the league in 2023 and otherwise being in the top 6 every season of the Patrick Mahomes era.
One way to look at it is through the eyes of general manager Brett Veach, who said he believes “you’ll see Travis have more of an impact.”
But with a certain caveat that may transcend numbers.
“Maybe it’s not in production,” Veach said Monday, “but it’s the offense (overall).”
If that sounds like a contradiction, it’s not.
But it is a nuanced notion based on a few evolving elements — including something I don’t recall Veach saying quite as bluntly before.
Entering last season, he said, the offense was predicated on running through second-year receiver Rashee Rice — who was off to a monster start (24 catches for 288 yards in the first three games) before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
“Which is much different in the past,” he said, “when it always kind of ran through Kelce.”
The injury to Rice compounded the loss of Hollywood Brown, who was injured on the first play of the first preseason game and didn’t return until Week 15.
Being largely without “the guys that he was supposed to make better and help elevate,” as Veach put it, was problematic enough in itself.
But it also left “too much put on” Kelce at this stage of his career — amplifying some of the natural ebb of age.
All the more so with a broader cast that simply didn’t have the chemistry with Mahomes that Rice and Kelce enjoyed and that the Chiefs saw him cultivating quickly with the newly signed Brown.
With Brown back and Rice expected to return for training camp, with Mahomes and Xavier Worthy having developed a certain something that was on display in Worthy’s eight catches for 157 yards and two TDs in the Super Bowl, Kelce doesn’t figure to amass his past numbers.
“The numbers won’t be the same,” Veach said. “I mean, you have to acknowledge a certain aspect of that, right?”
As he ponders expectations for Kelce this season, though, he still reckons he’ll be a key cog no matter what.
“I don’t know if I look at it in terms of, like, expectations for yardage or touchdowns or catches,” he said. “I think that when he’s on the field now, he makes us better. And I think that he’s also a guy that makes the people around him better. And when you have a guy that’s that connected with a quarterback, it’s almost like a little bit of him and Pat (are) a conductor for everybody else.”
Especially since he’ll still demand attention or, as Veach put it, “at least the occasional eyes of primary defenders.”
And no doubt he’ll still be a logical go-to guy in the crucible of the biggest games and most challenging moments.
As for managing his playing time? Veach called that “a great question for Coach.”
That would be Andy Reid, who at the NFL owner’s meetings in early April also suggested Kelce had been overextended last season because of the injuries. According to The Star’s Jesse Newell on-site in Florida, Reid also acknowledged it might be in Kelce’s best interests to reduce his standard-setting practice reps.
“We’ll see how it all goes going forward,” Reid said. “Try to play off of what I think he’s got. With all the guys, I do that. So we’ll just see where he’s at.”
Something the Chiefs also will be gauging how best to ration during games to maximize the impact of their most momentous offseason development — a megastar in the twilight who still can animate and elevate these Chiefs in ways few others could.
This story was originally published May 1, 2025 at 6:30 AM.