Tight end Travis Kelce is expected to return to play for a 14th season this year, league sources say. The twist: It isn’t a sure thing that the team he plays for would be the Kansas City Chiefs. Kelce’s representatives are expected to talk to multiple teams.
The 36-year-old Kelce — he’ll turn 37 in October — ranks 54th on The Athletic’s list of top 150 free agents and is the No. 6 tight end.
Kelce potentially joining a new NFL team in 2026 would be jarring. He spent his previous 13 seasons with the Chiefs, and it was previously assumed heading into the offseason that he’d either retire or re-sign with the team that drafted him in the third round (No. 63) in 2013.
Chiefs general manager Brett Veach said during last week’s NFL combine that the team was taking a “different approach” while remaining more patient this offseason with Kelce’s retire-or-return situation. This year also differs from past ones because Kelce is not under contract with the Chiefs in 2026, while set to become an unrestricted free agent.
“We’ve kind of prepared for either scenario (retire or come back),” Veach said on Feb. 24 in Indianapolis. “Coach (Andy Reid) mentioned on Friday he’d had great dialogue with Travis on our end. Myself, (assistant general manager) Chris Shea, Travis’ crew, we’ve had some good dialogue there, and I’m sure we’re going to see him here, along with all the other players’ agents. And we’ll continue that dialogue.
“Travis is the best. He’s an icon. Hopefully, he comes back, and we’ll just kind of let that process play out.”
Another factor that could be affecting things: The Chiefs have limited salary-cap room this season for free agents like Kelce after signing so many of their players to long-term contracts in recent offseasons. That lack of financial flexibility was part of the reason the Chiefs chose to trade cornerback Trent McDuffie — he’s set for a big payday after next season — to the Los Angeles Rams for four draft picks last week.
Kelce’s contract projection, per The Athletic’s top free-agent list, is one year and $10 million.
An 11-time Pro Bowler, Kelce has added to his celebrity in recent years as the fiancé of pop superstar Taylor Swift.
Though Kelce doesn’t have the same speed or hip-swivel he possessed in his glory days, he remained plenty productive during the 2025 season — the last year of his contract with the Chiefs. Kelce finished fourth among NFL tight ends with 851 receiving yards, and thanks to some extra offseason work on his conditioning, he displayed a renewed level of burst that wasn’t always present a season earlier.
That showed up in some of the advanced stats. Kelce forced nine missed tackles in the regular season, per Pro Football Focus’ data, which was triple the amount he had during the 2024 regular season.
Opposing defenses also continued to show Kelce plenty of respect. That included a Week 17 game when the Denver Broncos double-teamed him on the game-deciding fourth-down pass.
At his peak, Kelce strung together some of the most dominant offensive performances in tight end history, including a position-record 1,416 yards in 2020. Kelce also had seven consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 2016 to 2022, with five of those coming with Patrick Mahomes as the starting quarterback; no other tight end has more than four such campaigns.