Travis Kelce confirms return to Kansas City Chiefs for 2025 in text with Pat McAfee

With the NFL Combine ongoing, the chance for coaches, players and media alike to mingle is omni-present, and Pat McAfee took the opportunity on Thursday to share some breaking news on tight end Travis Kelce.

Of course, McAfee couched his revelation a bit, never naming Kelce officially.

Instead, he referred to a source — with his crew chiming in frequently to label it “sources” — that put him onto Kelce’s next move career-wise.

“We heard Brett Veatch speak on the Travis Kelce future conversation and speculation, we heard coach Andy Reid speak on this speculation of Travis Kelce’s future,” McAfee began on The Pat McAfee Show. “And I decided to reach out to sources who know and say, like, ‘Hey, what’s the… are we playing next year?’ to my sources.

“And message was, ‘My dawg!!!’ Source says, ‘I’m coming back for sure. Going to try and get to the best shape I’ve been this offseason and get back to the mountaintop. Got a real bad taste in my mouth with how I played in that last game, in how I got the guys ready for battle. I can’t go out like that!!!’ And guess what? One more exclamation point. So that’s the Travis Kelce future conversation.”

Just to avoid ambiguity, members of McAfee’s crew on set asked him to clarify whether he thought that meant, definitively, that Travis Kelce was coming back.

“I think you could say Travis Kelce’s coming back to play football yet again,” McAfee said.

Kelce is arguably one of the NFL’s most productive tight ends ever, currently ranking third in NFL history in career receptions (1,004) and receiving yards (12,151) and is fifth all-time with 77 career receiving touchdowns. Kelce also leads all active NFL tight ends in regular-season receptions, 229 more than veteran Washington Commanders TE Zach Ertz, who is currently a free agent.

In 16 games this past season, Kelce put up solid numbers with 97 catches for 823 yards but managed a career-low three receiving touchdowns.

But as he looks toward his 13th season in the NFL, it’s clear Father Time has already taken a toll on Kelce. His 823 receiving yards and 8.5 yards per catch are career-low marks.

Still, it appears he’ll give it another go in 2025.

On3’s Nick Kosko also contributed to this report.