{"id":774184,"date":"2026-02-24T22:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/774184\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:17:19","slug":"chiefs-gm-brett-veach-says-team-is-preparing-for-2026-season-with-or-without-travis-kelce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/774184\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs GM Brett Veach says team is preparing for 2026 season with or without Travis Kelce"},"content":{"rendered":"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 While Travis Kelce has alluded to returning<\/a> for the Kansas City Chiefs 2026 season multiple times this offseason, he still has yet to announce a final decision.<\/p>\n

Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach spoke on Tuesday, ahead of the NFL Combine, stating that the Chiefs will be prepared for whether Kelce decides to return for another season or not.<\/p>\n

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End Zone Extra: Get the top Chiefs news and insider features all season long <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve kind of taken a different approach with Travis, in the sense that I think we kind of prepared for either scenario,\u201d Veach said. [Andy Reid] had mentioned on Friday, he\u2019s had great dialogue with Travis. Travis is the best, he\u2019s an icon and hopefully he comes back. We\u2019ll just kind of let that process play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early January, Kelce stated on his podcast that he\u2019d be willing to return next season if his body allows him to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if my body can heal up and rest up and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18, 20, 21-week run, I think I would do it in a heartbeat,\u201d Kelce said.<\/p>\n

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Kelce hinted at returning again<\/a> after the Chiefs brought back Eric Bieniemy as their offensive coordinator last month, saying he, \u201ccouldn\u2019t wait to see him back in the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future hall of famer has nothing left to prove but the 2025 season was not the conclusion Kelce was expecting. The Chiefs finished 6-11 and his QB Patrick Mahomes was sidelined for the final three games of the season after tearing his ACL.<\/p>\n

Kansas City Chiefs release defensive end Mike Danna <\/a><\/p>\n

Along with awaiting Kelce\u2019s decision, Veach will have his hands full this offseason as the Chiefs work to fix their roster through the draft and free agency.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe last few years, we were kind of in a maintenance stage, and now we\u2019re just trying to rebuild this thing again. I think for a GM and personnel staff, that\u2019s exciting,\u201d Veach said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 While Travis Kelce has alluded to returning for the Kansas City Chiefs 2026 season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[501,4220,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-774184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-andy-reid","9":"tag-brett-veach","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kansas-city","13":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","14":"tag-kansascity","15":"tag-kansascitychiefs","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-travis-kelce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116127927290086372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}