Arrowhead Pride
The general manager says that Kelce is a unicorn of sorts.
On Monday, Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach held his annual post-draft press conference with the local Kansas City media via Zoom.
Before taking questions, Veach congratulated tight end Travis Kelce on the contract adjustment that makes him the highest-paid tight end in football over the next two seasons.
“He just signed it here a few minutes ago,” said Veach. “Hard to put into words what Travis means to this organization, this city — and [it] was certainly a priority to adjust his contact for us, and it was something that was important for Clark [Hunt]. [It’s] very fitting that Travis is now the highest-paid tight end in these two years... just a really special day and moment for this organization to once again recognize arguably one of the greatest tight ends to ever do it.”
Kelce is coming off an age-34 season in which he registered 93 catches for 984 yards and five touchdowns, adding 32 catches for 355 yards and three touchdowns in the postseason. Last year, he ended a streak of seven straight seasons of 1,000 yards or more.
“Every now and then, you have one of these guys who are outliers,” explained Veach of Kelce. “It’s funny. It’s not even May yet, and today, we had the chance to get out there in Phase 2. Guys were out there running around, and Travis was the first guy in line. He looked like he was 28 years old. The odds of someone [playing] this far into their 30s are very low — but it does happen, and it happens with unicorns in the profession. Travis is one of those.
“We’ll certainly celebrate this with him — and hopefully, we can ride this thing even longer. We’ll just have to wait and see, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down. Everyone notices the kind of postseason he had. He just found an extra gear. These special players are always able to find that extra gear — and if anybody could do it, Travis can.”
It sounds like Kansas City always had plans to raise Kelce’s salary before turning its attention to players like Nick Bolton, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith, who will all need new deals.
“We do have some younger guys coming up [with contracts],” said Veach. “Like always, once the draft settles down, we’ll have the chance to address all those players and work through that. Travis is an outlier here. I think we all know that when you talk about Travis and his career and his legacy here. This is something we wanted to knock right out of the park early on and shift our focus to the young guys coming up.”
