Sam Darnold’s MVP run continues, Ravens save season with win in Dallas
Sports Seriously’s Mackenzie Salmon “overreacts” to the key news from Sunday’s games.
Sport in Seriousness
ATLANTA – It has become a bit of a question for the Kansas City Chiefs: Where is Taylor Swift?
The NFL surely can’t get enough of the excitement surrounding the global icon and her legion of Swifties, amid her romantic relationship with one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history. The cameo shots of Swift watching her boyfriend from a private box, bonding with Brittany Mahomes and cheering wildly on big plays are, well, sweet.
But football purists have recently been asking another relevant question about the two-time Super Bowl winners: What happened to Travis Kelce?
Relax, folks. Even though Kelce has put up mediocre numbers in the Chiefs’ 3-0 start, this is far from a critical emergency that will jeopardize their attempt at a third straight win – at least not yet.
Sure, if you’re a fantasy football player who has Kelce on your team, you might be panicking. Through three games, Kelce has recorded eight catches for 69 yards. He’s still waiting for his first touchdown of the season.
During Kansas City’s narrow 22-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night, Kelce was targeted five times by running partner Patrick Mahomes and caught four passes for 30 yards. That’s certainly not the performance we’ve come to expect from the 34-year-old Kelce, who has averaged 100 catches and 52 touchdowns over the past six seasons.
On a crucial third-and-2 attempt early in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, Mahomes threw the ball up the middle to number 87 and Jessie Bates III, one of the NFL’s best playmaking safeties, ripped the football out of Kelce’s hands. Incomplete.
However, there is no reason to panic.
“I’m just living my dream, brother,” Kelce said when asked in the locker room afterward.
Then a boorish Chiefs security guard came in and executed a seal block that would have been typical of a power sweep, but in this case allowed a violation of the NFL’s stated – but poorly implemented – media policy that players be available for comment after games. The security guard cleared the way for Kelce to slip out the door without commenting on the nail-biting win. Since Kelce’s notoriety reached new heights (pun intended) thanks to his connection to Swift, he has routinely dodged questions after the game.
Too bad. Kelce, a 12-year pro, has been providing interesting insights for so long, podcasts or not.
Anyway, Mahomes explained it in football fundamentals. What’s going on with Kelce?
“It’s crazy,” Mahomes said. “Teams still have… the respect they have for Travis is unbelievable. It’s well-deserved.”
“We challenge Travis on a lot of plays. It’s like two or three people are coming to him. He understands. That’s the great thing about him. He wants to impact the game. At the end of the day, he wants to win.”
Although Kelce’s impact on the stat sheet has displeased some fantasy team owners, his presence in the game remains very real. Kelce played 54 of the 74 offensive snaps (77%) on Sunday night, a rate only surpassed by the 100% of Mahomes and the five offensive line starters. And while many measure his effectiveness by passing stats, Kelce’s immense value lies in his skills as a complete tight end who can play a punishing blocking role in the run game.
Hey, the catches will come. Remember how it went last season, when Kelce missed the opening game, then recorded 17 catches in his first three games and didn’t score a touchdown in the final six games of the regular season. During the playoffs, however, he had four monster games — including an 11-catch, 116-yard output in the AFC title game in Baltimore with a great TD catch — that were crucial to the Chiefs’ mission to repeat for the title.
So, just wait and see. The Chiefs’ passing game has been boosted by the emergence of second-year receiver Rashee Rice (who had his second 100-yard rushing contest of the season on Sunday night and has scored touchdowns in the last two games), while first-round pick Xavier Worthy has shown promise. But Kelce’s breakout is still a major threat.
“I’ll do my best to pass him the ball whenever he’s there, but I think the more Rashee plays, the more we can run the ball, the more we can get Worthy involved, that’s going to give Travis more room to play for us,” Mahomes said. “People are making a big point of taking him away, and that frees up other guys.”
It sounds like the Chiefs, who keep winning while trying to get going, have a “problem” with Kelce’s limited statistical output that most teams would beg for.
And even the Swifties could handle it.
