KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A night before Super Bowl LIX, the Chiefs gathered in a ballroom at a downtown New Orleans hotel, and they requested that some of their veterans speak to the room.

Travis Kelce, 35 years old and just two months shy of the oldest player on the Chiefs roster, stood up front. An impassioned speech followed, but it required some pauses to collect his emotions, a couple of teammates later recalled.

After hearing that, you couldn’t help but wonder: Is this it?

Maybe not, after all.

In a meeting with head coach Andy Reid after the Super Bowl, Kelce expressed his intentions to finish out his contract, which has one year remaining, general manager Brett Veach said when The Kansas City Star asked him at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

“The meeting that he had with our organization was that obviously he was disappointed in the game — and he was looking forward to getting back here,” Veach said. “... He wants to go out in a much different fashion. That’s the way I took it.”

In a postseason podcast, Kelce indicated the finality of his decision would come after some time away. To wit, Veach did couch his comments this way: The Chiefs believe Kelce will return for a 13th season, and they’re pushing forward as though his $19.8 million cap hit is spoken for, but “if he decides tomorrow that’s going to change, we’ll deal with it.” There is an if here, in other words.

Kelce is due an $11.5 million roster bonus on March 15, but Veach stressed “there’s never been a deadline that we’ve given him,” contrary to previous reports.

In his meeting with Kelce, even as the tight end expressed the desire to return, Reid told him to “get out of town and relax” to ensure his final decision is removed from the sting of a Super Bowl in which the Chiefs were dominated and Kelce did little to alter it.

He finished with four catches for 39 yards in the 40-22 loss against the Eagles. Only one of those receptions produced a first down.

His last two games combined — he also managed just two catches for 19 yards against the Bills in the AFC championship — totaled fewer yards than any of his previous 23 playoff games alone.

For all of the other noise, and there’s plenty of noise with Travis Kelce these days, that’s always been at the heart of this topic: Can one of the best tight ends in NFL history handle being less than what he once was?

Because this version of Kelce, if we can for a moment manage to refrain from comparing it to the Kelce of five years ago, is still productive.

Less so, sure.

But productive.

Yes, Kelce had the worst year of his career in 2025 (save his rookie season, when he played all of one snap, which came on special teams). But he did catch 97 passes. He did finish third among all tight ends in catches and fifth in yards.

The most obvious signs of his age came in his playmaking after the catch — or lack thereof. He managed only 3.5 yards after the catch per reception, and forced three missed tackles in the regular season, per PFF data.

“As you see yourself or not feel yourself have the success that you once used to have, man, it’s a tough pill to swallow,” he said earlier this month. “And then on top of that, to not be there in the biggest moments, knowing your team’s counting on you, man, it’s just a tough reality.”

It won’t get better. The reality won’t change.

Players don’t have bounce-back seasons at 36.

Most players don’t have any season at 36.

But this decision — or his worth — isn’t really the boom-or-bust question it’s made out to be.

Sure the Chiefs ought not to count on Kelce being their No. 1 option in the passing game, but, well, they won’t. They haven’t. Rashee Rice, who is on track to return to open 2025, was their top option before his injury. Xavier Worthy became their most dependable receiver late in the season.

But Kelce can still be an option, even if not the option.

There is a case study for this, you know.

It even has a Kansas City flavor to it.

The best late-30s seasons for a tight end in NFL history came from Tony Gonzalez, after the Chiefs traded him to the Falcons. As a 36-year-old, Gonzalez caught 93 passes for 930 yards and eight touchdowns. A year later at 37, he had 83 catches for 859 yards and another eight touchdowns.

If Kelce retired tomorrow and the Chiefs found a tight end producing those numbers, you’d take it, right?

If he can’t produce those numbers — and I’ve already mentioned he should expect another dip — there is a reason to believe he can perhaps come close.

As I mentioned, the signs of Kelce’s age showed up primarily in his diminished ability to make something happen after the ball found his hands. That fell to 3.5 yards after the catch per reception this season.

Gonzalez, in those age-36 and 37 seasons, averaged just 2.6 yards after the catch per reception. In fact, he didn’t top 3.0 yards in his last seven seasons.

And, yet, still productive.

Gonzalez and Kelce are not identical players, to be sure. Gonzalez had a larger catch radius. That matters. But the point is he still found a way to provide value, even if it wasn’t his peak value.

That’s where Kelce is. It’s where he still can be.

If he can accept it.

The pure numbers, though, illustrate only a portion of value.

A few days before the Super Bowl, and a couple days before that speech, I’d asked Kelce’s teammates and coaches in New Orleans to share stories to exemplify his meaning to the team.

The stories were plentiful.

Mike Bradway, the Chiefs senior pro personnel director, said Kelce’s practice habits were “my favorite thing to watch,” and it’s certainly notable that Kelce participated in every Super Bowl bye-week practice as the Eagles were providing some vets days off.

Joe Bleymaier, the passing game coordinator, described a play that the Chiefs ran in practice that didn’t pry Kelce open as anticipated. So after the play, Kelce walked to the sideline and asked Bleymaier to “coach me up.”

Nikko Remigio, a second-year wide receiver, found Kelce’s practice routine to be so motivating that he showed his wife the video.

Kelce is, as even owner Clark Hunt assessed it, as vital to the Chiefs’ culture as anyone, and that might even include Andy Reid.

If he indeed decides to return, the production might change.

But that won’t change.

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