While an embarrassing 40-22 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX was not how Kansas City Chiefs wanted their season to end, the team pieced together a solid offseason so far.
The team retained free-agent defensive end Charles Omenihu, running back Kareem Hunt, and receiver Juju Smith-Schuster, and bolstered a few other positions in signing former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Jaylon Moore and running back Elijah Mitchell, plus ex-Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Kristian Fulton and former Las Vegas Raiders QB Gardner Minshew.
Kansas City also added some solid pieces in the first three rounds of the 2025 NFL draft including Ohio State offensive tackle Josh Simmons (Round 1), Tennessee defensive tackle Omar Norman-Lott (Round 2), Louisville edge-rusher Ashton Gillotte and cornerback Nohl Williams (Round 3), but the biggest piece of the team’s offseason puzzle fell into place back on Feb. 27.
That’s the day tight end Travis Kelce confirmed to ESPN’s Pat McAfee that he was pushing off retirement and returning for his 13th NFL season.
Though the 35-year-old pass-catcher had the worst season of his career in 2024—he posted career lows in yards (823) and touchdowns (three)—some fans still have hope Kelce can be a meaningful contributor in 2025.
General manager Brett Veach is among that group, and based on his comments to the Kansas City Star on Thursday, some fans are likely wondering exactly what the Chiefs plan to do with Kelce in terms of his offensive usage.
“You’ll see Travis have more of an impact,” Veach said. “Maybe it’s not in production, but it’s the offense (overall), which is much different (than) in the past when it always kind of ran through Kelce.”
Last season, the Kansas City offense was supposed to rely less on Kelce with second-year receiver Rashee Rice and Marquise “Hollywood” Brown set to be focal points of the passing game.
But after losing Rice to an LCL injury in Week 4 and Brown to an SC joint injury during the preseason, Kelce saw one of the highest target rates of his career (133 targets in 16 games), which Veach hinted likely won’t happen again next season.
“The numbers won’t be the same,” Veach added. “I mean, you have to acknowledge a certain aspect of that, right? I don’t know if I look at it in terms of, like, expectations for yardage or touchdowns or catches.
“I think that when he’s on the field now, he makes us better. And I think that he’s also a guy that makes the people around him better. And when you have a guy that’s that connected with a quarterback, it’s almost like a little bit of him and Pat (are) a conductor for everybody else.”