Either way, though, the trendline of his performance hasn’t been good enough for the Chiefs.

A new Wall Street Journal article pointed out a stat that is really quite obvious when you pull up Kelce’s stats page:

Kelce is on pace to finish shy of 1,000 yards for the third season in a row.

His career trend has gone like this: just one game played as a rookie; two seasons above 800 yards in 2014 and 2015; then seven consecutive seasons of more than 1,000 yards.

Kelce dropped to 984 yards in 2023, then 823 yards in 2024.

He’s at 727 yards through 13 games this season. At 55.9 yards per game, he would come up shy of 1,000 if he maintains this pace.

It’s not to be unexpected, of course. Players are supposed to become less effective as they get older, even as more and more athletes in the modern era seem to defy aging.

Kelce’s ineffectiveness has come in shocking ways, though. His consecutive drops on Sunday night were surprising. Aging should cause a player’s athleticism to suffer, but his hands? Kelce’s hands have rarely let him down as much as they have the last season or two.

And as easy as it would be to say his hands have been too busy tying the knot, it’s really kind of tough to watch the relative struggles.

Kelce is still a useful player, but the Chiefs don’t have enough firepower, and Kelce can’t carry the offense the way he once did.

The Chiefs play a ton of national spotlight games, and so we’re all watching as Kelce’s decline continues.

If his career ends with the Chiefs missing the playoffs, that’d be a tough way to watch him go out.