Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is taking ownership for his slow start to the season.
“I put that on me,” Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast, per ESPN’s Adam Teicher. “I didn’t play my best, and it spreads if you don’t fix it, and I’ve got to get that thing fixed.”
Kelce has caught four of his seven targets for 39 yards through two games and has yet to score a touchdown. He was particularly ineffective in Kansas City’s Week 2 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, recording just one reception for five yards.
“For whatever reason, for these past two games, it hasn’t gone that way for me,” Kelce said. “That’s football.”
The 2013 third-rounder has been one of the most productive pass-catching tight ends in NFL history. His 911 receptions, 11,367 yards, and 74 touchdowns rank fourth, fourth, and fifth on the all-time tight end leaderboard.
Despite the Cincinnati product posting his first sub-1,000-yard season since 2015, Kelce still earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2023 with 984 yards and five touchdowns on 93 catches. He would’ve likely eclipsed the 1,000-yard threshold had he not sat out the team’s regular-season finale after the Chiefs solidified their playoff positioning.
“I’m not going to sit here and get frustrated about it,” Kelce said of his slow start. “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.”
He added: “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 will look to rebound when the Chiefs visit the Atlanta Falcons for Week 3’s Sunday Night Football matchup.
