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Chiefs’ Travis Kelce Reaches 10,000 Career Receiving Yards

For a record seventh time, the star tight end broke the 1,000-yard mark in a single season.

Zach Koons

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Chiefs star Travis Kelce became the fifth tight end in NFL history to reach 10,000 career receiving yards with his efforts in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Broncos. 

The historic moment came when Patrick Mahomes found Kelce for a 38-yard catch in the first quarter of the contest. Appropriately, Kelce made the grab right over the middle and scrambled up the field for a sizable gain–a play that NFL fans have seen the Kansas City great make a number of times throughout his career.

Coming into the game, Kelce needed just 26 yards to join an exclusive club of tight ends in the 10,000-yard club. The 10-year-veteran is now among elite company alongside counterparts Tony Gonzalez (15,127 yards), Jason Witten (13,046), Antonio Gates (11,841) and Shannon Sharpe (10,060) as the only tight ends to reach the milestone.

Kelce’s history-making moment comes amid another sensational season for the 33-year-old, who came into Sunday’s game with 968 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2022. The catch that pushed Kelce over 10,000 career yards also put him over 1,000 yards for the season, marking the seventh straight year that he’s broken the barrier.

No other tight end is close to Kelce in that particular category, as Gonzalez, Witten and Rob Gronkowski are tied for second among tight ends with four 1,000-yard seasons. The Chiefs star also holds the NFL record for most receiving yards in a season by a tight end with 1,416 in 2020.

Kelce is already a three-time first-team All-Pro selection and three-time second-team honoree with seven Pro Bowl nods. Given his current trajectory in 2022, he’s sure to add to his remarkable résumé before the season ends.

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Zach Koons
ZACH KOONS

Zach Koons is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about Formula One. He joined SI as a breaking/trending news writer in February 2022 before joining the programming team in 2023. Koons previously worked at The Spun and interned for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He currently hosts the "Bleav in Northwestern" podcast and received a bachelor's in journalism from Northwestern University.

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