Chiefs News: Travis Kelce Gets Honest About Early Season Struggles

The Kansas City Chiefs have opened the 2024 season with wins against two expected AFC contenders in the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. The Chiefs, yet again, look like the best team in the NFL and are off to a great start as they look to make history as the first team ever to win three straight Super Bowls.

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While the Chiefs appear to be the best team in the NFL through two weeks, not everything has gone swimmingly. For instance, future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce hasn’t exactly looked like himself through two weeks of play.

Kelce has just four receptions for 39 yards through two games this season. In Sunday’s win over the Bengals, he reeled in just one catch for five yards. The last time he had one reception in a game was Week 1 of the 2018 season.

While Kelce hasn’t exactly played up to his Pro Bowl-caliber self, he said on his “New Heights” podcast that he’s going to turn things around.

“I’m not going to sit here and get frustrated about it,” Kelce said. “I used to get really, really pissed off and almost lose my cool a lot of the time for not having that success, knowing that I demand that out of myself. I just like to play the game to such a high level that it’s tough for me to deal with being mediocre or having stats that represent that.

“Moving forward, it’s just, ‘How can I be better in those moments? What’s the issue? Am I not getting out into my routes fast enough?’ or whatever the situation may be.”

Kelce ended a streak of seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons last year when he had just 984 receiving yards, his fewest since 2015. He came up huge in the postseason, though, catching 32 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns.

Kelce, 34, is in the waning years of his career, but proved last season he could still play at a high level. The Chiefs rewarded him with a new contract and significant raise this offseason, keeping him in Kansas City through the 2025 season.

Kelce is going to do what he can to get his season on track but says there are tons of factors that go into catching a lot of passes.

“If you want to catch the football, (1) it has to be the right play, (2) it has to be the right coverage, and (3) it has to be everybody doing their job up front and on the back end in terms of running their routes. …

“For whatever reason, for these past two games, it hasn’t gone that way for me. That’s football.”

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