Kansas City Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce has helped redefine the tight end position, transforming it into a potent new weapon throughout his NFL career.
Now, at age 36 in October, football analysts are beginning to suggest that he’s officially passing the baton to the next generation of tight ends.
Take Pro Football Focus’ latest positional ranking, for example. Kelce has been a fixture at or near the top of the annual PFF tight end ranking for a long, long time.
As recently as 2023, he placed first overall. And last year in 2024, he still ranked second despite PFF moving San Francisco 49ers counterpart George Kittle above him.
It turns out that one-spot drop was just the tip of the iceberg.
PFF released their official 2025 tight end ranking on May 29, and Kelce plummeted all the way down to seventh on the list. Behind Kittle, second-year rising star Brock Bowers, 25-year-old Trey McBride, veteran Mark Andrews, 24-year-old Sam LaPorta, and veteran T.J. Hockenson.
“While Kelce has been the second-most-valuable tight end over the past two seasons, per PFF WAR, 2024 represented the lowest-graded season of his career (71.7),” PFF analyst John Kosko explained.
“Age looks to be catching up to the future Hall of Famer,” he continued, concluding that “his 91.4 PFF overall grade from 2022 appears to be a thing of the past.”
Travis Kelce Is Still a Top 5 NFL Tight End
For the past decade-plus, the Chiefs have had a unique playmaker that no other NFL team could replicate. Kelce gave them an advantage, not just because he was a dynamic receiving threat at tight end — there have been other receiving TEs — but because of his rare awareness and versatility on offense.
Kelce’s ability to find soft spots in coverage and take a five-yard outlet pass for an extra 20 has set him apart, as has his comfort level lining up under center or as a sort of fullback when head coach Andy Reid cooks up a new play design.
As noted above, having Kelce gave Kansas City a cheat code on offense. However, based on their new ranking, PFF seems to think those days are over.
Coming off an 823-yard campaign — his worst since his rookie year, in which he only appeared in one game — it’s fair to drop Kelce a little bit.
Some of the younger players at the position, like Bowers, LaPorta and McBride, have shown Kelce-like impact early on, so putting Kelce below them and prime Kittle would make some sense. Kelce falling below Andrews and Hockenson is much more disrespectful.
Andrews only achieved 673 receiving yards last season, and he hasn’t put up 800-plus yards since 2023. Heading into his age-30 campaign, the Baltimore Ravens tight end appears to be aging at a faster rate than Kelce, and there’s no reason he should be above the Chiefs superstar on this list.
Hockenson is more in his prime than Andrews at age 28 in July, but he’s never truly proven himself as elite. Coming off a season-ending injury, Hockenson started the year late in 2024 and racked up 45.5 receiving yards per game upon returning. Even at age 35, Kelce averaged 51.4 receiving yards per game.
Hockenson did accumulate 900-plus yards in 2022 and 2023, but he’s never reached 1,000 and has always been a step below Kelce as a player.
So, if PFF wanted to drop Kelce down to four or five, depending on how you want to judge LaPorta’s mixed results, that would have been reasonable. But putting him seventh behind Andrews and Hockenson feels harsh. It’s on Kelce to prove them wrong.
Chiefs in No Rush to Replace Travis Kelce at Tight End
Every offseason, there’s always a suggestion that entails the Chiefs drafting a tight end in the first or second round to replace Kelce. But it never happens.
That’s because KC is in no rush to replace Kelce, and they’d rather build around him at positions like wide receiver or offensive line.
Sure, the Chiefs extended Noah Gray, but he’s more of a really strong TE2 at heart. They also took a flyer on Jared Wiley in round four of the 2024 draft, but they haven’t made any overt moves to unseat their future Hall of Famer.
As long as Kelce is willing to lace ‘em up, Coach Reid, general manager Brett Veach and quarterback Patrick Mahomes are happy to have him. And Kelce’s legacy will at least continue into 2025.
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