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\n Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has officially signed a one-year, $12 million contract to return for his 14th NFL season. The 36-year-old All-Pro decided to delay retirement for another shot at championship glory alongside quarterback Patrick Mahomes.\n <\/p>\n
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Star tight end Travis Kelce has officially committed to another season with the Kansas City Chiefs, signing a contract that brings him back to catch passes from quarterback Patrick Mahomes once again.<\/p>\n
The Chiefs confirmed Wednesday that they\u2019ve secured the four-time All-Pro for his 14th NFL campaign as the new league year began and pending agreements became official. The 36-year-old veteran chose to postpone retirement plans and extend his outstanding career, which features three Super Bowl championships, rather than conclude on last season\u2019s disappointing 6-11 finish.<\/p>\n
Kelce\u2019s one-year agreement is valued at $12 million, with performance bonuses potentially increasing the total compensation to $15 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always need to take a step back, breathe and let the emotions of the season settle down and see where the body is,\u201d Kelce explained during his Tuesday visit to \u201cThe Pat McAfee Show.\u201d \u201cMan, I\u2019m still in love with this game. I still love going to work, putting on the pads, grinding it out and just playing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran pass-catcher had expressed his preference for staying in Kansas City dating back to the NFL scouting combine if he chose to continue playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy best opportunity was playing for the Chiefs yet again and running this thing back,\u201d Kelce explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pieces in Kansas City that I just absolutely love and I can\u2019t wait to get back in the building with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelce revealed that his fiancee, global music sensation Taylor Swift, influenced his choice to continue his football career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share the same love for what we do, and fortunately we\u2019ve had this desire since we were kids in our selective professions,\u201d Kelce explained. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see her keep going to the table, keep finding new things to write about, keep finding new melodies and, on top of that, still seeing her have that love and joy in what she does.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course that\u2019s motivating. That\u2019s motivating for anybody to see, let alone my fianc\u00e9e, knowing that I\u2019m going through something where I\u2019m trying to figure out exactly what the future holds for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Chiefs organization, the opportunity to retain Kelce meant he could continue working under head coach Andy Reid and alongside close friend Mahomes \u2014 who aims to be healthy for the season opener following late-season knee surgery for a torn ligament.<\/p>\n
The prospect of reuniting with Eric Bieniemy, who has returned as Kansas City\u2019s offensive coordinator following Matt Nagy\u2019s departure, also appealed to Kelce.<\/p>\n
Kansas City\u2019s front office was willing to allow Kelce the necessary time for his decision while hoping for resolution by the start of the new league year to establish budget parameters for free agency and roster planning before the NFL draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve kind of taken a different approach with Travis in the sense that we\u2019ve prepared for either scenario,\u201d Chiefs general manager Brett Veach stated at last month\u2019s scouting combine. \u201cCoach (Reid) had mentioned he\u2019s had great dialogue with Travis. On our end, myself, (assistant general manager) Chris Shea and Travis\u2019 crew, we\u2019ve had some good dialogue there.<\/p>\n
\u201cTravis is the best, he\u2019s an icon and hopefully he comes back and we\u2019ll just let that process play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retirement thoughts first surfaced for Kelce before the previous season began, but he quickly determined he didn\u2019t want his career ending with a Super Bowl defeat to Philadelphia. He intensified his offseason training regimen and returned in peak physical condition, ultimately recording 76 receptions for 851 yards and five touchdowns last season.<\/p>\n
Questions remain about whether Kelce can maintain that production level as he approaches his 37th birthday in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing coming back was that we\u2019ve got to be even more hungrier than we\u2019ve been before. Talking to Pat and Coach Reid and the guys, it\u2019s pretty (evident) there\u2019s a lot of \u2018dog\u2019 mentality right now to get this thing fixed,\u201d Kelce said. \u201cThat mentality itself is already motivating me to get to where I need to be during the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has officially signed a one-year, $12 million contract to return for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[108477,108478,346,108471,108479,108473,108474,108472,7,108475,118,110,2438,2437,6,108476],"class_list":{"0":"post-807437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-chiefs","11":"tag-fine-day","12":"tag-fine-day-102-3","13":"tag-fine-day-fm","14":"tag-fine-day-media","15":"tag-fine-day-radio","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-have-a-fine-day","18":"tag-kansas-city","19":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","20":"tag-kansascity","21":"tag-kansascitychiefs","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116213956913428277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807437","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=807437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}