Patrick Mahomes on Travis Kelce Finding the Fountain of Youth Late in KC Chiefs' Season

Kansas City's superstar tight end is playing great football and bringing a spark as the team reaches yet another Super Bowl.

The Kansas City Chiefs are going to their fourth Super Bowl in the Patrick Mahomes era, which means multiple players can add to their respective legacies next week.

Travis Kelce is one of them, and the 34-year-old got a bit of a head start during the team's run through the AFC playoffs.

In three postseason games thus far, Kelce has 23 receptions for 262 yards and three touchdowns. He's averaging nearly 10 yards per target and is posting a catch percentage that soars above his career averages in the regular season. Last weekend, his 11-catch game against the Baltimore Ravens was one of his best of the last 12 months. 

Kelce set the tone before the AFC Championship Game and alluded to bringing a tremendous amount of focus into the week. Mahomes, speaking to the media on Thursday, said Kelce's energy helps set the bar for the rest of the team.

“A ton," Mahomes said. "People don’t even see it at practice. The energy he has — he wants to take every single rep. We have to get him out of practice just to give him a rest, he wants to be out there for every single play. I think that mindset, when you see the Hall of Fame tight end and he wants to be the one working the hardest, it raises everybody’s standard. It raises the standard of how you practice, it raises the standards of how you prepare because you know that guy that has done it at the top level wants to continue to do it every single week, every single day. At the same time, he has a great time doing it. I think that shows you that you can work extremely hard and still have fun coming to work every single day.”

Things weren't always this easy for Kelce, though, this season.

Before kickoff of Week 1, the four-time All-Pro suffered a hyperextended knee and bone bruise. Kelce, while visibly not 100%, recovered in time to play in the following game. In Week 5, he suffered a sprained ankle against the Minnesota Vikings. While he followed that contest up with consecutive 100-plus yard performances, the production didn't last long. In nine games to close out his 2023-24 regular season, Kelce averaged just five catches and 51 yards per game. During that stretch, he scored only one touchdown.

Entering Week 18, Kelce needed just 16 yards to keep his 1,000-yard season streak alive. Rather than play and extend the legendary run, he decided to sit out and prioritize rest and recovery. Looking back on the decision, it seems to have been the right call. Kelce appears to have more juice during the playoffs. He's moving with relative ease, is laying out for catches and has even lowered his shoulder into opposing defenders. It's reminiscent of the Kelce of 2022 and prior. 

Mahomes admitted that on some occasions during the year, the Chiefs had to get Kelce practice and in-game rest to preserve whatever they could. Now, he's bouncing back and showing up for the biggest games of the season. 

“Definitely there were times throughout the season where we had to take him out," Mahomes said. "He didn’t want to, but we had to get him out to let his body heal. It wasn’t like his mind wasn’t there, but you could just see his body — it wasn’t moving in the way it always moves. I think, like you said, just having that rest, I think just having more time from when the original injuries happened — you could see how his body was getting back. We felt really good going into even that Cincy game. Going into that last week getting that rest and going into [the] playoffs, you could tell his body was getting back to the true Travis Kelce. It was definitely good for him, and hopefully we can keep that thing rolling not just this game but in the future years as well.”

Kelce is no stranger to performing at a high level in the playoffs. After all, he's coming off a game in which he broke Jerry Rice's record for most receptions in the postseason. Kelce isn't just a great playoff player, but one of the best ever. That was the case even before this year, yet he's piling on in the month of January. 

He and the Chiefs will hope that the lone February game will bring more of the same. Kelce, now healthier, will need a big-time game in Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers for his team to win. A year ago, he had 81 yards and a touchdown that helped propel Kansas City to its second ring of the Mahomes era. Is championship No. 3 on deck? With Kelce seemingly finding the proverbial Fountain of Youth, it wouldn't be a surprise.

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