The Kansas City Chiefs suffered a massive blow to their playoff chances on Sunday Night Football as they lost at home to the Houston Texans by a score of 20-10. Following the loss, the class of the AFC now has just a 15 percent chance of making the playoffs. They’ll need to win out in their final four games while getting some help from a number of teams in the Wild Card race.
Some of the Chiefs uncharacteristically sloppy offensive play came from their typically sure-handed players like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. Kelce’s struggles in particular cost Kansas City in the late stages of Sunday night’s game.
Kelce caught just one of his five targets on Sunday night, while suffering two brutal drops in the latter half of the fourth quarter, the second of which was picked off by Houston.
Following Kelce’s poor showing, rumors have begun to hit the fan around whether we’re watching the beginning of the end of his Hall-of-Fame career.
Stephen A: “This Is The End For [Kelce]”
Stephen A. Smith took the stage on ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday morning and made a bold claim about Kelce’s dwindling future in the NFL.
âAs for their future sure-fire Hall-of-Famer Travis Kelce, I think this is the end for him,” Smith said. “I think we all knew he just came back because of the way they went out in the Super Bowl against the Eagles.â
Based on Kelce’s play Sunday night, Smith’s point may have some validity. It could be easily argued that this was one of, if not the worst game of Kelce’s NFL career, especially with the playoff implications it carried.
Unless he catches 8+ passes in each of the final four games of the year, Kelce is on pace to have the least productive season of his career since 2015. He has 60 catches for 727 yards this season and hasn’t been under 90 since the 2017 season. If you pace it out, Kelce is only averaging a little over four catches per game this season, a downgrade for Mahomes’ long-time safety blanket.
If Kelce truly only came back because he wanted to avenge the Chiefs’ loss to the Eagles in the Super Bowl last season, he hasn’t done much to prove his vengeance; rather, all of his work this season may have been done for naught as Kansas City’s playoff chances are quickly slipping away.
Mahomes Finishes SNF With Lowest Passer Rating of Career
Patrick Mahomes finished Sunday night’s game with a passer rating of 19.8, the worst single-game performance of his storied career. He finished the game completing 14-0f-33 passes for just 160 yards and three interceptions. He didn’t complete a touchdown pass.
On a macro level, Mahomes’ stats this season aren’t terrible; they’d be very solid for a middling NFL QB. But for the level of play we’ve seen from the two-time MVP over his career, it’s been a highly disappointing season comparatively.
Granted, he’s working with a depleted offensive line, a regressing Kelce, and a mediocre group of wide receivers. We’ve seen him do more with less around him in his career though, which begs the question “what has to change in Kansas City to rebuild around Mahomes?”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Stephen A. Smith Makes Bold Prediction on Travis Kelce After Texans Loss appeared first on Heavy Sports.