It has been a week since the Kansas City Chiefs played their final game of the NFL season, and we still do not know if legendary tight end Travis Kelce is calling it quits after 13 seasons.
Following the game, Kelce opened up with raw honesty when asked if he was going to continue playing, saying it was different than last year’s Super Bowl loss, where he knew immediately that he would be back. Instead, he answered that he didn’t know what his future held, as Kelce mentioned that the decision could come quickly to him or take some time for soul-searching.
One person in the Kansas City Chiefs football world doesn’t think Kelce can make too much of a decision about his retirement.
Mitch Holthus, the longtime Chiefs Radio Network play-by-play announcer, recently spoke out about how important it is for the tight end to make his decision sooner rather than later because of the importance of this upcoming offseason for Kansas City.
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“You’ve got to give Kelce some time, but you can’t have too much time,” he said on local radio. “Not with a team that has salary cap issues to figure out.”
The Chiefs are heading into free agency currently $50 million over the cap limit.
While that should drastically go down with the presumption they will rework Patrick Mahomes’ massive $78 cap hit, along with other contracts, Kelce is another critical piece of the puzzle that needs to be figured out.
If Kelce retires, that could open up room to pay other players and go younger at the position in the draft. Although Kelce wouldn’t gouge the Chiefs on a new deal, he’s still statistically one of the best tight ends in the league, which could change who stays or who goes on the current roster.
“What do you want to do, Kelce?” Holthus asked. “At what price do you want that to be done? … I think he’ll decide fairly shortly.”