Chiefs Coordinator Addresses Travis Kelce’s Dismal Start to the Season

Travis Kelce’s slow start to the season has some football fans ringing alarm bells, but the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t concerned.

Kelce, 34, has had just four receptions for a total of 39 yards through the Chiefs first two games, a peculiar start for the player who has established himself as one of the most dominant tight ends in football for a decade. 

But Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy isn’t stressed out about Kelce’s stat line. 

“He knows who he is,” Nagy, 46, said during a press conference Thursday, September 19. “We know who he is. When you have that, it’s important to know that.”

Nagy added, “It’s just a matter of time.”

During the Chiefs’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, September 15 — with girlfriend Taylor Swift cheering him on  — Kelce caught the ball just once, the first time since September 2018 that he didn’t have three or more receptions in a game. 

“I’ve been with him for quite a long time,” Nagy said of Kelce. “ I’ve seen him around practice. I’ve seen him in games. There’s been zero change. He’s been great.”

Nagy was the quarterbacks coach with the Chiefs from 2013 to 2015 before serving as offensive coordinator from 2016 to 2017. After leaving to coach the Chicago Bears for four seasons, Nagy returned to the Chiefs as senior assistant and quarterbacks coach in 2022. 

He was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2023, helping lead Kelce and the Chiefs to their second-consecutive Super Bowl. 

“Travis has been really good,” Nagy insisted. “You look at the targets, you look at the numbers, you look at all that stuff with Travis.”

Bolstered by the support of his coaching staff, Kelce himself said he “stopped caring about stats four or five years ago.”

“I just went out there and started to play free and play for my guys,” Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast Wednesday, September 18. “Sure enough, I think that’s the better mentality. You think about it more play by play and what your job is on that specific play.”

Kelce acknowledged he hasn’t set the world on fire so far this season, saying, “For whatever reason, these past two games it hasn’t gone that way for me.”

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

The Chiefs return to action on Sunday, September 22 when they travel to Atlanta to take on the Falcons on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.