He’s on an undefeated team that’s at the pinnacle of NFL dominance, but Travis Kelce is still catching flak from NFL fans and commentators.
Through three games, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has only eight catches for 69 yards, which has many fans and commentators unhappy with Kelce’s performance.
And that includes Travis Kelce.
“Everybody can clean it up,” Kelce said Wednesday during his “New Heights” podcast with brother, retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce.
He jokingly called his performance so far “trash,” before noting the team is playing “winning football.”
Trav 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/0qjPdTUusD
— Jack (Travis’s Version) I Saw Taylor (@JackTomo7139) September 25, 2024
Still, he cited a third-down play in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons where, according to The New York Times, Kelce failed to hold onto a pass that would have been a first down for his team.
“Just trying to do too much before I put the ball away,” Kelce told his retired brother. “That’s probably the biggest thing for me is, making the plays in big-time moments like that.”
#TravisKelce‘s making it crystal clear — he is not dejected over his slow start to the 2024 season … saying as long as the #Chiefs are winning, he’s a happy camper. Full article in bio! pic.twitter.com/wQBt5ATDsU
— TMZ (@TMZ) September 25, 2024
He noted that with opposing defensive schemes he’s “not really a lot of opportunities to make plays down the field, but … not using that as an excuse.”
“Moving forward, everyone’s just tweaking their game in the right direction,” he said. “As an offense, you’re going to go through these ups and downs throughout the season.
“And you just want to make sure that you clear, you clean up all the mistakes, that you’re making sure that you’re communicating so that everybody understands exactly where we’re going moving forward.”
The 800-pound gorilla in the room, of course, is Kelce’s relationship with pop star Taylor Swift, which has led some commentators to accuse the athlete of falling prey to a “jet setting” lifestyle.
In a podcast on Monday, former ESPN commentator Todd McShay questioned Kelce’s conditioning and his play for the Super Bowl champion Chiefs.
“Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like, are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape?” McShay said, according to the New York Post’s Page Six column.
“That he’s been partying all offseason? He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world.”
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McShay said Kelce and Swift were spotted at the U.S. Open in New York “drinking” after the Chiefs NFL opener against the Baltimore Ravens, Page Six reported.
And outspoken sports analyst Stephen A. Smith said on ESPN’s “First Take” on Wednesday that there are “legitimate questions” about Kelce’s focus on football, considering everything else going on in his life, according to Fox News.
“Does he need to get it going? Yes. But why does he need to get it going? Because without this brother, to rely upon, Kansas City ain’t winning no damn Super Bowl. I can promise you that,” Smith said, according to Fox.
But two men who have a vested interest in Kelce’s performance — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid — chalked it up to NFL defenses.
“We’re calling a lot of plays for Travis and it’s like two or three people are going to him,” Mahomes said this week, according to CBS Sports. “He understands — that’s the great thing about him is he wants to make an impact on the game, but he wants to win at the end of the day.”
Reid, meanwhile, told reporters at a news conference on Monday, according to Athlon Sports, that defenses are “working hard at taking Kelce out of the picture.”
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