Getty Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
On May 1, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and brother Jason Kelce released their newest episode of the “New Heights” podcast. In the episode, Travis reacted to getting a pay raise from the Chiefs.
“I am so freaking thankful to Brett Veach, Mark Donovan, Coach Reid, Big Red — I love you big guy — and obviously Clark Hunt,” Kelce said on the May 1 episode. “The Hunt family has been absolutely unbelievable to not only myself and this Kansas City community, but they’ve just been so generous since I’ve been here in making it feel like home. And for the past 12 years, man, I’ve been able to make this place exactly that and I’ve loved every single second of it. I’m going to love the next two years playing here in Kansas City, and we’ll see what happens after that.”
On top of feeling appreciated by the Chiefs, Kelce is also glad he was able to reset the financial bar for tight ends across the league.
“But I am so excited and I’m so thankful to this organization for getting it done and making me feel appreciated and compensated the right way. And on top of that, I got to move the needle for the tight end room. It’s everyone else’s job to go out there and keep making that tight end AAV number go up and up with every single contract that’s better than mine in the future.”
Brett Veach Calls Travis Kelce a Unicorn
According to NFL Media’s Tom Pelissero, Kelce’s extension adds $34.25 million to the two years remaining on his old deal. The veteran TE now has guaranteed money in 2024, “with additional money vesting year-by-year,” per Pelissero.
Speaking to the media on April 29, Chiefs general Manager Brett Veach discussed what he calls a “contract adjustment” for Kelce, and what the veteran TE means to Kansas City.
“First, want to start off by congratulating Travis Kelce on his contract adjustment, just signed it here a few minutes ago,” Veach said. “You know, hard to put into words what Travis means to this organization, this city, and was certainly a priority to adjust his contract for us and it was something that was important for [Chiefs chairman and CEO] Clark [Hunt], so very fitting that Travis is now the highest-paid tight end in these two years. [I want to] thank his agents Michael and Greg for all their hard work, appreciate [football administration coordinator] Jack Wolov on our side for all their hard work. Again, just a really special day and moment for this organization to, once again, recognize arguably one of the greatest tight ends to ever do it.”
Brett Veach on How Long He Thinks Travis Kelce Can Play
Giving a pay raise to a 34-year-old TE over the next two years is risky business in most cases. But as Veach explained, Kelce being the outlier that he is made it an easy decision.
“Well, I mean, every now and then you have one of these guys that are outliers, and certainly Travis is one of those players,” Veach said. “It’s funny, it’s not even May yet, and today we had a chance to get out there in Phase 2 and guys were out there running around, and Travis was the first guy in line and, I mean, he looked like he was 28 years old. Again, the odds of someone playing this far into their 30s are very low, but it does happen, and it happens with just unicorns in the profession and Travis is one of those.
“We’ll certainly celebrate this with him and hopefully we can ride this thing even longer, so we’ll just have to wait and see, but he’s shown so signs of slowing down and everyone notices the kind of postseason he had and he just found an extra gear,” Veach continued. “These special ones, these special players are always able to find that extra gear, and again, if anybody can do it, Travis can.”