Travis Kelce was a third-round pick by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013. He had a decent career at Cincinnati, but it was a rocky road after he was suspended after testing positive for marijuana during the 2010 season. Kelce missed the entire year but returned in 2011 and had his best collegiate season in 2012 before getting drafted.
Kelce didn't have much of an impact as a rookie, playing in just one game and missing most of the season due to a bone bruise in his knee. He came back in 2014 and had his breakout season. Kelce became a consistent producer for the Chiefs and climbed the ranks among not only the best tight ends in the league but also the best players overall.
Kelce is playing in his 12th pro season and will turn 35 in early October. He has more snaps behind him than he does yet to come, and it looks like he is starting to come back down to Earth. Despite Father Time eventually coming for all football players, critical fans point the finger of blame off the field for the star tight ends' troubles so far in 2024.
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Travis Kelce's stats before dating Taylor Swift
Pop icon Taylor Swift was rumored to be linked to Kelce in the fall of 2023. These reports gained more traction when Swift attended a Chiefs game with Travis' mom, Donna Kelce.
Swift attended her first game on Sept. 24 last year, and Kansas City destroyed the Chicago Bears 41-10. Since then, Swift and Kelce have been together, and it has now developed into this pivotal point where fans think that Kelce's downturn began.
The following regular season stats are before Kelce started dating Swift:
| Games | Targets | Receptions | Receiving Yards | Receiving Touchdowns | |
| 2013-2022 Totals | 144 | 1,146 | 814 | 10,344 | 69 |
| 2013-2022 Per Game Averages | 144 | 8.0 | 5.65 | 71.83 | 0.48 |
Kelce won two of his three Super Bowl championships before he started dating Swift.
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Travis Kelce's stats since dating Taylor Swift
Kelce and Swift were officially linked when she attended the game in 2023. That was the Chiefs' third game of the season, but the assumption is that they would have been talking before the first game she attended.
Here are Kelce's regular season stats since he started dating Swift:
| Games | Targets | Receptions | Receiving Yards | Receiving Touchdowns | |
| 2023-2024 Totals | 18 | 133 | 101 | 1,053 | 5 |
| 2023-2024 Per Game Averages | 18 | 7.4 | 5.6 | 58.5 | 0.28 |
Obviously, the last two seasons have a much smaller sample size. He sees roughly the same targets per game, if not a slight drop-off. Kelce is coming down with around the same receptions; they just aren't going for as many yards.
Kelce is seeing a regression with his touchdowns, but at the end of the day, you are looking at the first 10 years of his career and then his most recent two, when he was at least 33 years old.
MORE: What did Travis Kelce say about his 2024 season?
Fans want to make a big uproar about his off-the-field relationship with Swift, but there are plenty of other factors. He has been pursuing a foot in the door for acting like with the new show Grotesquerie, and he is simply getting older. Kelce is the second oldest tight end in the league, five years younger than Mercedes Lewis, who is not having near the production that Kelce is.
Kelce won his third Super Bowl championship in 2023, the first year of his relationship with Swift. The Chiefs have a good chance of three-peating this season. If they do, it sure wouldn't help this narrative people are building.
