Travis Kelce last season had a down year until the Playoffs where he became the number one option once again helping lead the Chiefs to win the second half of the back-to-back Lombardi Trophies brought to Kansas City over these last two seasons.
As the Chiefs look to achieve the historic three-peat next season, their passing attack is looking more and more dangerous this season because of the new options in Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and Rookie speedster Xavier Worthy.
Those two with the emerging Rashee Rice should help Travis Kelce get more open opportunities in the regular season next year to be back to the Top TE option in 2024 fantasy. Let’s look at Kelce’s 2023 production.
Travis Kelce 2023 Production
Kelce still was a Top 3 TE option in 2023 even with the small dip in production from a touchdown perspective from 2022. Kelce ended up with 93 receptions for 984 yards for five touchdowns last year, falling short of 1,000 yards for the first time since 2015. Kelce had his worst season in terms of 10.6 yards per reception and 12.9% big play rate last season because of the lack of the other receiving talent around him last season. But the playoff rampage of 32 receptions for 355 yards and three touchdowns in four games that he went on last year was the thing that showed most fans that he still has that top tight end level in him.
Fantasy Pros had Kelce as the second best tight end last season based on their metrics. The fact of the matter is that Kelce did have one of his worst statistical regular seasons of his career, which may have some people hesitating but that playoff run should provide the optimism again that Travis Kelce can be one of the Top 2 TEs in Fantasy. Speaking of the projection, let’s look at the projection.
Travis Kelce 2024 Projection
ESPN has Travis Kelce bouncing back all the way as the No.1 TE in 2024 with 83 receptions for 836 yards and seven touchdowns for a total projection of 208.66 fantasy points. Meanwhile Fantasy Pros has Kelce as the TE 2 with a total projection of 90 receptions for 971 yards and eight touchdowns in 2024, with the 11th easiest schedule for tight ends this year
Travis Kelce gets a lot of attention normally from defenses and still will get a lot of attention but the additions of Hollywood Brown and Xavier Worthy should change the amount of attention that he has because of the speed factor alone because if you leave those guys in a 1v1 situation you’ll get burned deep especially with Mahomes at QB.
Travis will be Travis with his unstoppable backyard style of route running like always and more so that will be the key to his success like always, I think Kelce will get back to having more looks in the red zone especially if those receivers play like advertised. The only things that could hinder Kelce are health and the potential of Isiah Pacheco stealing red zone touchdowns on the ground.
But Kelce is going to be the first read about 60% of the time for Mahomes because of the chemistry that those two have built over the years and now it’ll be evident that these new receivers will make life easier because Kelce isn’t getting any younger.
Final Thoughts
Travis Kelce will be the TE 1 this year over Sam Laporta in my opinion but it will be a close race between those two players for that top spot. I’m giving Kelce the edge because he has the best quarterback in the NFL by far in Patrick Mahomes and that chemistry gets back to the A+ football that they had last season.
I would draft Kelce in the second round though not in the first round like in past seasons because of the amount of receiver talent that is out there are better options long term than Kelce for the 2024 season.
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