Chiefs' Travis Kelce Is The Greatest Tight End In NFL History On The Biggest Stage

Kelce makes his case as the Tight End GOAT with his prowess on the biggest stage

Irony abounds since the singer/songwriter that everyone knows performs at his best on the biggest stage. Travis Kelce performs at his best when the lights shine the brightest and with the Lombardi Trophy on the line Sunday night in Las Vegas, there may be no tighter end that can make the type of impact Kelce can.

Mike Tannenbaum, former Jets GM now with ESPN, spoke about Kelce's ability to separate: "He has little man's feet and moving skills in a big man's body, so he's like the best of both worlds. He can create separation as a route runner, but he's a huge man." There is much more to Kelce's game, though. Former NFL receiver and CBS analyst Charles Davis said, "He understands the offense, he's not just out there making it up and drawing it up in the dirt. He knows the entire offense, how it's designed, and then he finds where the holes are, where the spots are, where the places are that he fits without disrupting other people's routes."

Tyler Dunne, writer with golongtd.com and a contributor for The Athletic ran an adulatory piece on Kelce this week saying, "I think what makes [Mike] Ditka special, [Jeremy] Shockey, [George] Kittle, Gronk, these tight ends, and some of the best tight ends ever, they like to have some fun off the field, they kinda push the envelope and they're kind of wild children, and they somehow are able to harness their personality and the way they attack life to this position where you're hitting people for a living and you're also catching the ball downfield with everything on the line."

Kelce has the kind of telepathy with Mahomes that Gronk had with Brady. "The other part of it is the rapport that he has with Mahomes," Dunne continued. "We all see it, but it's just crazy how Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady had something special and everybody loved to make fun of Gronk for being like this caveman, but he was way smarter than I think anybody really realized, even in the classroom, too. He could kinda run the routes that a lot of Patriot receivers couldn't. He knew where to turn on those option routes, and he knew what Brady was thinking, and I think you kinda see that same kind of connection in Mahomes and Kelce and then some. There's so much improvisation, so much second reaction."

Ernie Accorsi, the former Giants GM who signed Plaxico Burress to give Eli Manning a tall target to throw to thinks Kelce and Gronk are the best of the best of this generation of tight ends, "They're such a feature part of the offense, they create mismatches in the secondary 'cause they're so big." As big as Kelce is, at 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, he's a huge target for Patrick Mahomes, especially in the red zone.

Travis Kelce is doing his best Taylor Swift impersonation on the Las Vegas stage Sunday night. With his regular-season dominance and playoff success (22-257-2 TDs in three Super Bowls, with two rings), the Chiefs' tight end is in the conversation as the G.O.A.T. of his position. Sunday night may solidify his status.