Throughout the regular season, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs faced a lot of doubt. It’s only natural that as Kelce’s game improved in the postseason, so did the Chiefs.  

The veteran tight end’s postseason performance corresponds with the Chiefs’ consistent deep playoff runs. Patrick Mahomes has a track record of improving his game in the postseason, as does Kelce. That cannot be a coincidence. 

Even in playoffs where Kelce has been outstanding (23 catches, 262 yards, three scores), there were valid questions about whether the future Hall of Fame tight end could return to this level. Kelce recorded his fewest receiving yards in a season (974) since 2015, the first time he did not reach 1,000 yards in eight years. He also averaged 65.6 receiving yards per game, the lowest he’s had in a regular season since 2015 (54.7). 

There were concerns about Kelce’s age (34) and his off-field relationship (Taylor Swift). Did Kelce lose a stride as he entered his mid-30s? Was his life becoming a distraction while he sought greatness? Were the Chiefs impacted by Kelce’s off-field issues, which resulted in a No. 3 AFC seed and a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Day? 

All of those questions were answered in the postseason when the Chiefs won two games on the road to return to the Super Bowl. Kelce played an important role in dominant postseason games, which is typical for a player of his caliber.

Kelce’s dominance continued in 2023, with no signs of a decline. Was Kelce holding back during the regular season to prepare for the playoffs, or is this just Travis Kelce, who finds a way to deliver in January and February?

“People don’t even see it at practice,” Mahomes stated this week, according to a Chiefs transcript. “He’s full of enthusiasm and wants to do every single rep. We had to pull him out of practice simply to give him a break; he wanted to be there for every single play. 

“I believe that mindset when you see a Hall of Fame tight end wanting to be the one training the hardest, boosts everyone’s expectations. It raises the level of your practice. It increases the bar for how you prepare because you know the guy who has done it at the highest level wants to keep doing it every week, every day. 

“At the same time, he has a great time doing it.”

Kelce knows how to elevate his game for the playoffs, as proven by his career numbers in both the regular season and the postseason. 

Kelce averaged 6.2 catches, 65.6 receiving yards, and 0.33 touchdowns per game during the regular season. Kelce’s postseason statistics increased to 7.7 catches per game, 87.3 receiving yards per game, and 1.0 touchdowns per game: Better numbers in all three categories, as in previous postseasons. Again, the standard rather than the outlier. 

Kelce is the first player in NFL history who has scored three or more touchdowns in five consecutive postseasons. He has made the most catches in NFL playoff history (156), the second-most receiving yards (1,810), and the second-most receiving touchdowns (19), trailing only Jerry Rice in those two categories. 

Rice has the most postseasons with 200-plus receiving yards (six), although Kelce is close behind him (five). They are the only two players to have achieved the feat. Kelce is the only player in NFL playoff history to have 20-plus receptions in four different postseasons (Rice has never done so), and he has done so in consecutive seasons. 

Kelce has the NFL record for the most catches (104) and receiving yards (1,178) in four consecutive postseasons. Of course, this is the same player who had seven consecutive seasons of 1,000 receiving yards (the most by a tight end in NFL history) until this year and is the only tight end with multiple 100-reception seasons (Kelce has three). 

Kelce ranks fourth among his position in career receptions (907) and receiving yards (11,328), and he will undoubtedly pass Antonio Gates for third next year. Despite a dip in regular-season performance this year, Kelce remained a strong performer. 

The Chiefs had their weakest wide receiver crop this season, forcing Kelce to confront defenses as the primary pass-catching target throughout the season. Rashee Rice, a rookie, had not yet emerged, and JuJu Smith-Schuster (signed with the New England Patriots) was not available in the slot to provide more security for Mahomes. 

In the postseason, Rice became the No. 1 wide receiver, and his targets per game increased from 6.4 to 8.3. Kelce’s targets per game increased from 8.1 to 9.0. Mahomes targeted his most trusted pass catchers in the playoffs, and they delivered, allowing the Chiefs offense to defeat elite defenses such as the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens on the road. 

Kelce has consistently been the most dominant player in the postseason. This time, the regular-season stats were lower, and doubts arose as to what was going on surrounding the Hall of Fame tight end. 

This postseason demonstrated that Kelce, like Mahomes, simply elevates his game to new heights.