Chiefs May Part Ways With Star TE Travis Kelce Following Playoffs

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Chiefs May Part Ways With Star TE Travis Kelce Following Playoffs

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Max Dible | Last updated Jan 22, 2025 1:34 PM ET

The Kansas City Chiefs are two games away from their third consecutive Super Bowl victory, but whether they fail or succeed in that endeavor, the end of an era could be coming on the heels of this postseason.

Questions about the future of tight end Travis Kelce have been persistent since last year.

He has started off each of the past two seasons slowly, though that is partially by design. The physical toll the game has taken on the tight end has made it necessary for the team to use him more sparingly over the grind that is the regular season, so as to have the elite version of Kelce available come playoff time.

That strategy worked swimmingly during the last playoffs, as Kelce had one of the best runs for a tight end in history with 32 catches for 355 yards and 3 touchdowns across a four-game championship stretch. It appears to be working well again in 2025, as he led the Chiefs with 7 grabs for 117 yards and 1 score in their divisional round victory over the Houston Texans.

But Kelce has 12 years of NFL service under his belt will turn 36 next season -- the same age at which his brother Jason Kelce, a Super Bowl champion offensive lineman with the Philadelphia Eagles, decided to retire from football.

Kelce is also dating arguably the most famous woman in the world in Taylor Swift, co-hosts a $100 million podcast with his brother, hosts a gameshow on cable television and is breaking into the world of acting in both television and film.

From the Chiefs' side of the equation, he's a player whose overall production is down and will require continued rest management. Beyond that, Kelce carries a $20 million salary cap hit in 2025.

"Cutting Travis Kelce is obviously a long shot. ... However, the Chiefs would be able to create $17.3 million in cap space by releasing Kelce," Bleacher Report's NFL Scouting Department wrote on Monday, Jan. 20, upon naming Kelce a top-three potential cap casualty for the Chiefs. "This is much more likely to come into play if Kelce decides to retire. The star tight end has wavered on his retirement stance in media appearances. If he decides to walk away, the Chiefs have structured his contract in a way that's going to help them with their cap space."

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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