{"id":816971,"date":"2026-03-17T12:09:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816971\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T12:09:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T12:09:40","slug":"full-details-of-travis-kelces-contract-including-40-million-dummy-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816971\/","title":{"rendered":"Full details of Travis Kelce\u2019s contract \u2014 including $40 million dummy year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Travis Kelce\u2019s contract details have been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Kelce signed a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/09\/sports\/travis-kelce-makes-decision-on-14th-nfl-season-after-retirement-talk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one-year, $12 million deal<\/a> last week to return to the Chiefs for his 14th NFL season, after contemplating retirement in the offseason.<\/p>\n<p>The money is fully guaranteed \u2014 though $9 million comes in the form of roster bonuses, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/free-agency\/travis-kelce-contract-details-how-the-chiefs-set-te-up-for-potential-retirement-tour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per Sports Illustrated<\/a>. $3 million of that chunk is a training camp bonus, while the other $6 million is awarded if Kelce is on the 90-man roster at certain points throughout the season. Meaning, even if he isn\u2019t active, Kelce\u2019s all but guaranteed the money.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.2205006;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38793665\" width=\"720\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/092125Giants222CW.jpg\" alt=\"Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce (87) on the field at MetLife Stadium.\" class=\"wp-image-38793665\"  \/>Travis Kelce finished the 2025 campaign with his third-lowest season yard total. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n<p>Kansas City also added $3 million in incentives, including tiers for making the playoffs and Super Bowl and playing 60-80 percent of regular-season snaps.<\/p>\n<p>The contract is also broken up to manage cap hits. In 2026, Kelce will have a $4.8 million cap hit and dead money hits of $3.5 million in the ensuing two years.<\/p>\n<p>This stipulation allows the Chiefs to evade void years. They have minimum salaries built into dummy years in 2027 and 2028, including $40 million guaranteed in 2028 if he\u2019s still rostered by June 8 of next year. However, if the Chiefs release him by June 1, 2027, they can spread the dead money out.<\/p>\n<p>After making his decision to keep playing this year, it could be a direct path to retirement for Kelce considering he\u2019ll be 37 next season.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38793680\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP_Chiefs_Kelce_Football_98173-622f9-0.jpg\" alt=\"Travis Kelce running with the ball as a Chargers player tackles another player.\" class=\"wp-image-38793680\"  \/>The Chiefs won three Super Bowls in five years from 2019-23, with Travis Kelce at the forefront. AP<\/p>\n<p>In 17 games this past season, Kelce finished with 851 yards and five touchdowns. It was the third straight year he failed to reach the 1,000-yard plateau, but he still made his 11th consecutive Pro Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Across his 13-year career since being drafted in the third round in 2013, Kelce has racked up 13,002 yards on 1,080 catches and 84 total touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Kelce\u2019s return is massive for the Chiefs, who missed the playoffs for the first time since 2014 with a 6-11 record in 2025. Patrick Mahomes <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/14\/sports\/chiefs-patrick-mahomes-left-devastated-by-torn-acl-to-end-his-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tore his ACL<\/a> in Kansas City\u2019s Week 15 loss to the Chargers, and it dropped its last three games to end the season.<\/p>\n<p>Mahomes is expected to return next season, and Kelce will be at his side once again as the Chiefs look to re-establish their dynasty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis Kelce\u2019s contract details have been revealed. Kelce signed a one-year, $12 million deal last week to return&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,110,6,89225,2592,9,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-816971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-nfl-free-agency-2026","12":"tag-nfl-free-agency","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-travis-kelce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116244445883303835","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816971","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=816971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}