Those who, for the 2nd consecutive year, declared that the Chiefs didn’t have the juice this time, please line up to accept your “fell for it again” award. I understand it, Travis Kelce is 34, has very public pursuits other than football, has seemingly won enough, and who else do they have? After all, a “playoff switch” is a silly idea right?
Well probably not! Kelce in the postseason has been the NFL’s answer to death and taxes, with 14 straight games now exceeding 70 yards receiving. He broke his tie with Jerry Rice, the greatest pass catcher of all time, for playoff games over 100 yards with his ninth. Travis now has Rice’s total receiving record firmly in his sights, sitting just 225 yards shy of the all-time career playoff total. On Saturday, Houston found out the hard way that the old man is still capable of carrying a passing game with a skill set uniquely built for winter football. Per Adam Telcher at ESPN “Kelce exceeded his regular-season average for yards per game in the playoffs every year since 2020. Against the Texans on Saturday, Kelce more than doubled his season average of 56 receiving yards per game.” So how is Kelce built for the postseason?
Down The Middle
Kelce’s game is neither complicated nor is it any longer flashy. All he does, down after down, is find space in the middle. present an outlet for his QB. and create after the catch. He’s best-known for being a gifted mover, but Kelce’s greatest talent is his mind and ability to read coverages. The purest form of football, like comedy, is improv. For most receivers, routes are drawn in ink, but for Travis, they’re guidelines. Per the man himself in a 2020 presser:
“The biggest thing in terms of route running for me is knowing what the defense is in, knowing the coverage. Once you know the coverage, now you can start manipulating the defense. You can start to kind of trick them in where you're going to go and where you want to get open.”
At TEU, Kelce detailed how he adjusts based on his understanding of the defense. The video cannot be embedded due to copyright, but you can click the link and watch it on Youtube, it’s brief and worthwhile. By having a good grasp of what defenders are taught, what they have to account for, and how they’re going to respond, Kelce manipulates his technique to maximize every route. One of the smartest route runners in the league, he’s able to squeeze openings out of coverages that would get more rigid route runners covered. Some offenses, like the Shanahan family, prefer to have receivers as structured as possible in their routes, hitting specific landmarks at specific times and not deviating. This is done so they can structure and time every play a certain way, which is tied to the QB’s footwork. While they have conversions and adjustments built-in, those too are rigid and pre-structured.
The Mahomes-Kelce Chiefs aren’t like this at all. Incredible trust is placed in those two to adapt in real-time and make thsse offense right no matter what the D does.
So what does that mean in practice? In general, it means that Kelce is almost impossible to cover in true zone coverage (eyes on QB), as he’s just going to find the voids and get into them. The telepathy he and Mahomes possess prevents this from causing any issues. like “total football” in Soccer, they share a mind and work as one.
The actual design of the concept puts Kelce on a middle-read, which means he splits the middle against 2-deep and bends it underneath if the middle is closed (single-high). He gets Cover-3 (fire zone in this case). Once Kelce sees the Mike (0-Al-Shair) widen from the middle, he knows there will be a void, but Instead of continuing up and over, he breaks off his route, sits down, and Mahomes hits him. The smoothness after the catch turns it from a chain-mover into a chunk.
While uncoverable in zones, Kelce, even at 34, is still a hard cover man to man. The nickel has inside leverage here, which Kelce has to undo to get open on the in-cut. With a gather-step, he gets his guy square, so that he can defend either an inside or outside break. From there, Kelce puts his foot in the ground and snaps inside to get open, turning on a dime after the catch to punish the defender’s momentum and create YAC.
Brothers in the Backyard
The same trait that gets Kelce open in structure is what makes him Mahomes’ chief enabler in the scramble drill. While Mahomes rightfully gets a ton of credit for revolutionizing the position with improvisation outside the pocket, Kelce’s own improv skills, as well as their connection, is the other half of that equation. He knows to drift inside with the defenders flowing out to chase Mahomes which sets him up in space after the catch.
On Mahomes’ highlight-reel falling TD, he knew that Kelce would know to drift into the second window. The level of trust in the other to see the same thing at the same time makes this happen. Mahomes doesn’t have to point or direct traffic, he just knows.
The Dirty Work
While Kelce won’t be used as an in-line blocker (certainly not at this point in his career), he has assumed, this year, an expanded role as a blocker, becoming a go-to lead blocker in their counter-based run game. While this is an easier block, it gives him use in the run game that allows KC to be unpredictable, which is huge and gives him more value than simply being a good WR.
Chasing Rice
There’s such poetry to the colliding legacies that Travis Kelce and Jerry Rice share. Despite the differences in aesthetics and time period; the reliable, intelligent route technicians, who rule the middle of the field and possess an unrivaled sense for space, are kindred spirits, down to the fact that they never seem to age.
With a play-caller who traces his lineage directly back to Walsh, Kelce is carrying his legacy into the modern era, a legacy defined most when the lights are brightest.