Travis

Kelce

After destroying the Texans last round, Kelce was mostly uninvolved against the Bills. He turned in an 11-yard catch on Kansas City’s final scoring drive, but finished with no red zone targets despite playing 61-of-66 snaps. Kelce will remain a good DFS Super Bowl pick — after all, we saw how much a good week’s rest can help him last round — but it is hard to predict him to be a ball-dominant player in any one game at this stage of his career.

Like clockwork, 35-year-old Kelce woke up for his best game of the year as soon as the calendar turned to “playoffs.” His 117 yards were a new season high, and broke his tie with Jerry Rice for the most 100-yard performances in playoff history (Kelce now has nine). Despite the stuffed stat sheet, Kelce is visibly not the same player he was in his prime. He looked a bit like Russell Wilson in the open field this afternoon. He’s just so savvy at finding the soft spots in the defense. He will be an AFC Championship Game X-factor regardless of opponent.

The Chiefs listed numerous healthy, core players as doubtful to play this week with Kelce of course among them. His deactivation was fully expected. Backup tight end Noah Gray is an intriguing, if volatile, dart throw. The fourth-year veteran is having a career-best season and the Chiefs could use the opportunity to see what they have in Gray for the long-term. It is possible Andy Reid already views Gray as an important passing-game contributor though so he may have a limited role, with the playoffs in mind.

Kelce will get the week off as the Chiefs prepare for the playoffs. They have already secured the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Other notable names listed as doubtful include Chris Jones, Patrick Mahomes, George Karlaftis, and Trent McDuffie, just to name a few. Kelce ends the regular season with 97 receptions for 823 yards and three touchdowns.

Carson Wentz will draw the start this week. Reid didn’t name every starter getting the day off, but our best guess for the list of names includes Travis Kelce, Isiah Pacheco, Kareem Hunt, DeAndre Hopkins, Xavier Worthy, and Hollywood Brown. Expect others to make the cut as well. The Chiefs are massive underdogs to the Broncos this week, all but guaranteeing Denver a spot in the playoffs.

Maybe not “vintage” Kelce, but pretty good. The 35-year-old celebrated a couple milestones in the win; catching his 1,000th pass and also passing Tony Gonzalez for the most touchdowns in Chiefs’ history with 77. The future Hall of Famer had a not-so-nice 69 yards combined in the previous three games, so this was encouraging to see. Unfortunately with Kansas City clinching homefield advantage, fantasy managers may not see much of Kelce in a meaningless Week 18 bout against the Broncos.

Not the line you wanted, but certainly the line you’re used to. Since Week 12, Kelce has gone over eight targets just once and hasn’t done better than 68 yards in a game or scored. Kelce has become a low-end TE1. Noah Gray (1/10 on one target) gets tagged on to this post because he somehow managed to not score a touchdown. Neither player is an exciting start in Week 17 against the Steelers, though we can understand riding with Kelce’s volume.

Lumbering around the rest of the afternoon after limping off early, Kelce finished the game but posted a new four-week low for yardage. Held out of the end zone in five straight weeks, Kelce’s floor isn’t appealing as usual while he hasn’t been spiking weeks since around mid-season. Now he could be missing Patrick Mahomes for Week 16 against the Texans after the quarterback tweaked his ankle in Cleveland. The injury doesn’t seem overly serious, but the 13-1 Chiefs are firmly in rep management territory as they ready for the postseason. Kelce would still crack the top eight even if Carson Wentz got the call vs. Houston.

The volume and production surely left fantasy managers clamoring for more, but the veteran tight end made his presence felt when he connected with quarterback Patrick Mahomes on a bootleg on third-and-seven with two minutes remaining to allow the Chiefs to run down the clock and kick a game-winning field goal as time expired. The Chiefs somehow managed another dramatic finish as the kick hit the left upright and ultimately found its way through to clinch the AFC West division. Kelce could be busier when the Chiefs travel to Cleveland to face the Browns in Week 15.

He had an uncharacteristic drop over the middle, and only managed three red-zone targets in the contest. One of them, though, he was open on a cover-zero look from the Raiders and Patrick Mahomes simply placed it to the opposite shoulder of what Kelce was looking for. Rough. He’ll be a realistic TE1 against the Chargers in Week 14 but this offense is struggling enough that it is hard to call him much more than that.