• No indicators of decline for Travis Kelce within the playoffs: His 90.7 PFF receiving grade ranks second amongst 74 qualifying gamers during the last three playoffs.
• Elite manufacturing within the playoffs: Kelce’s 2.53 receiving yards per route run within the playoffs since 2022 matches Minnesota Vikings large receiver Justin Jefferson‘s within the common season.
• 2025 NFL Draft season is right here: Attempt PFF’s best-in-class Mock Draft Simulator and study 2025’s high prospects whereas buying and selling and drafting in your favourite NFL workforce.
Estimated studying time: 5 minutes
Though he had been written off by many individuals in the course of the common season, Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce was again to his greatest in the course of the divisional spherical matchup towards the Houston Texans. Kelce earned a 91.1 PFF receiving grade, which led all gamers this previous weekend. He recorded seven receptions for 117 receiving yards and a landing, highlighting as soon as once more how he’s on one other stage in comparison with all different tight ends within the playoffs.
Since Patrick Mahomes took over because the Chiefs’ beginning quarterback in 2018, Kelce has 1,727 receiving yards within the playoffs – Tyreek Hill is the one different participant to additionally earn greater than 1,000, as the previous Chiefs large receiver has 1,098. Moreover, Kelce has caught 19 touchdowns within the playoffs since 2018 whereas no different participant has greater than six.
These are considerably anticipated as a result of he additionally performed significantly extra snaps than some other receiving possibility as a result of Kansas Metropolis’s profitable seasons. Nevertheless, extra superior metrics additionally proves Kelce to be the perfect. For instance, his 91.9 PFF receiving grade within the playoffs during the last seven seasons leads all 92 gamers who’ve run not less than 100 routes within the playoffs over that interval. As well as, his 2.41 receiving yards per route run rank eighth amongst these 92 gamers; nevertheless, he leads all tight ends, Cameron Brate is a distant second together with his 1.83 receiving yards per route run. The 0.58 hole between Kelce and Brate is the equal of the hole between the second-ranked Brate and Fifteenth-ranked Gerald Everett.
Some may say that Kelce’s first couple of seasons skew his stats when his complete time with Mahomes; nevertheless, even during the last three seasons – the time the Chiefs haven’t misplaced a playoff sport – he has been dominant. His 90.7 PFF receiving grade trails solely Nico Collins amongst 74 qualifying gamers, and his 2.53 receiving yards per route run leads all tight ends by a big margin and trails solely Romeo Doubs, Puka Nacua, Terry McLaurin and Collins.
Whereas it is laborious for others to duplicate common season success within the playoffs, Kelce will not be solely doing that however is taking his sport to a different stage. In comparison with his 2.53 receiving yards per route run within the playoffs during the last three years, he recorded only one.88 receiving yards per route run during the last three common seasons – which nonetheless ranks second amongst tight ends over that point span. In truth, his mark for the playoffs could be tied for the fourth amongst all receivers during the last three common seasons. The participant he could be tied with? Minnesota’s Justin Jefferson, which means that Kelce within the playoffs is basically as environment friendly on his routes as Jefferson is within the common season.
If Kansas Metropolis’s star tight finish can carry his A-game twice extra this season then the Chiefs may accomplish the historic threepeat that they’re pursuing this season.