There was no doubt in Travis Kelce’s mind he would play Sunday against Jacksonville, just 12 days after sustaining a bone bruise while hyperextending his right knee.
“I was out there flying around,” Kelce told reporters after his team’s 17-9 win over the Jaguars. ” I wish I could have helped my team out a little bit more than I did.”
Kelce’s production was more muted than usual with four catches for 26 yards on nine targets. He was the target on 35% of his routes. But his longest reception of the day, a 9-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes, was vintage Kelce.
“Just kind of me and Trav [Travis Kelce] just doing the scramble drill and working,” Mahomes said. “Travis is great at that stuff.”
“They got a great defensive coordinator, you get down to the red zone, they really make you find voids in the zones,” Kelce said. “With that being said, I knew once Pat kind of broke contain where a soft spot was gonna be.”
Mahomes wasn’t even certain his favorite target would be available this week.
“Honestly, just the fact that he played, I mean, it surprised me because that’s a scary injury,” Mahomes said. “He didn’t look good there for a little bit but he battled over those extra days. He was in the facility rehabbing, and to get himself out there and able to play, it talks about the competitor that he is and the teammate that he is.”
Kelce played just 43 snaps against the Jaguars. That’s the fewest snaps he’s played in a game since he took 41 snaps in Week 7 of 2020 in a 43-16 blowout win over Denver. The 64% of snaps played is his lowest percentage in a game since the season opener in 2022, a comfortable 44-21 win over Arizona in which the starters didn’t finish the game.
Kelce has only played a lower percentage of snaps in the regular season in nine of his 145 career appearances. All but one of those came during his first two seasons in the league. He played just 51% of the snaps against Houston in Week 5 of the 2017 season, a contest in which he also eight passes for 98 yards in a 42-34 win. He also played 50% of the snaps in the team’s 22-21 Wild Card round loss to Tennessee. Kelce left that game due to a concussion.
The 33-year-old All-Pro refused to concede the injury limited him on Sunday.
“I’m not gonna say it was an issue at all,” Kelce said. “Everything that you saw out there was a was 100% what I could give and hopefully next week we get even better from it.”
Head coach Andy Reid praised his tight end’s performance.
“Trav did a good job,” Reid said. “He’s in pretty good shape. He had a lot of routes in there, so looked like he felt pretty good.”
Yet Sunday’s game also saw some of Kelce’s frustration bubble to the surface. Early in the second quarter, Kelce was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct following Justin Watson’s fumble recovered by the Jaguars. Following his touchdown reception, Kelce punted the football into the stands. Later he and Jaguars safety Rayshawn Jenkins were called for offsetting unnecessary roughness fouls just before the 2-minute warning at the end of the game, and Kelce was involved in more extracurricular activity after the final whistle.
The Chiefs offense has averaged 19 points per game through the first two weeks of the season, 10 points fewer per game than they averaged last year as the league’s highest-scoring offense. But Kelce believes the best is yet to come.
“Still early in the season, and what you guys just saw is the second game bringing all the new pieces together, and we’re gonna keep building, we’re going to keep growing,” Kelce said. “I know we got great leadership but right now hats off to the defense, the way they’re playing and keeping us in games. We love them for it and we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot on offense.”
Injury report
In his postgame press conference, Reid noted just two injuries — receiver Kadarius Toney with a left foot issue and fellow receiver Justin Watson with dehydration.
As far as the injuries go, Kadarius Toney, his left foot was bothering him a little,” Reid said. “We’ll check it out. He played most of the plays he was supposed to be in on. And then Justin Watson was dehydrated game and got an IV and then he was gonna come back out if it went into overtime.
Linebacker Nick Bolton (ankle) and safety Bryan Cook (undisclosed) briefly left the game but both later returned to the contest.
