KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Travis Kelce will be back catching passes from Patrick Mahomes for the Kansas City Chiefs one more time.
The Chiefs made official their deal to bring the four-time All-Pro tight end back for a 14th season Wednesday, when the new league year made pending contracts official. The 36-year-old Kelce had decided in recent days to shove off retirement for another year rather than end a superlative career that includes three Super Bowl rings with a 6-11 record this past season.
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The one-year deal for Kelce is worth $12 million with incentives that could push the total to $15 million.
“You always need to take a step back, breathe and let the emotions of the season settle down and see where the body is," Kelce said during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Tuesday. “Man, I’m still in love with this game. I still love going to work, putting on the pads, grinding it out and just playing the game.”
Kelce had indicated as far back as the NFL scouting combine that he wanted to play for Kansas City if he returned.
“My best opportunity was playing for the Chiefs yet again and running this thing back,” Kelce said. "There’s a lot of pieces in Kansas City that I just absolutely love and I can’t wait to get back in the building with them.”
Kelce also said his fiancee, pop superstar Taylor Swift, played a role in his decision to return.
"We share the same love for what we do, and fortunately we’ve had this desire since we were kids in our selective professions,” Kelce said. “It’s amazing to see her keep going to the table, keep finding new things to write about, keep finding new melodies and, on top of that, still seeing her have that love and joy in what she does.
“Of course that’s motivating. That’s motivating for anybody to see, let alone my fiancée, knowing that I’m going through something where I’m trying to figure out exactly what the future holds for me."
As for the Chiefs, the chance to keep playing for coach Andy Reid and alongside best buddy Mahomes — who hopes to be ready for Week 1 after late-season surgery on a torn knee ligament — was enticing.
So was the chance to play once more for Eric Bieniemy, who is returning for a second stint as Kansas City's offensive coordinator after the departure of Matt Nagy.
The Chiefs were happy to give Kelce some time to make his decision. But they also were hopeful that it would come by the start of the new league year, giving them some cost certainty for free agency and roster certainty ahead of the NFL draft.
“I think we’ve kind of taken a different approach with Travis in the sense that we’ve prepared for either scenario,” Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said during last month’s scouting combine. “Coach (Reid) had mentioned he’s had great dialogue with Travis. On our end, myself, (assistant general manager) Chris Shea and Travis’ crew, we’ve had some good dialogue there.
“Travis is the best, he’s an icon and hopefully he comes back and we’ll just let that process play out.”
Kelce began contemplating retirement even before last season, but he quickly decided that he didn't want his career to end with a Super Bowl loss to Philadelphia. He instead redoubled his offseason conditioning work and returned in his best shape in years, and he wound up catching 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns last season.
But whether he can sustain that pace yet again is a big question mark. Kelce turns 37 in October.
“The biggest thing coming back was that we’ve got to be even more hungrier than we’ve been before. Talking to Pat and Coach Reid and the guys, it’s pretty (evident) there’s a lot of ‘dog’ mentality right now to get this thing fixed," Kelce said. “That mentality itself is already motivating me to get to where I need to be during the season.”
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