TRAVIS KELCE PASSES JASON WITTEN'S TIGHT END YARDS RECORD

Travis Kelce moved into second place on the National Football League's all-time list for tight end receiving yards during the Kansas City Chiefs' season-opening game against the Denver Broncos, played in front of Taylor Swift. Kelce entered the game 45 yards short of Jason Witten's career mark of 13,046 receiving yards for a tight end. In the third quarter, quarterback Patrick Mahomes found Kelce with a short pass over the middle, which Kelce turned into a 59-yard gain before being tackled near the Broncos' five-yard line, his longest catch since 2021. Kelce finished the game with three catches for 71 yards, taking his career total to 13,073 and surpassing Witten's record. The Chiefs won the game 31-10.

Speaking on the New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts, Kelce said he now expects it will take another five years to catch Tony Gonzalez, the all-time leader among tight ends for receiving yards. Kelce said that when he first moved to tight end, Witten, Gonzalez and Rob Gronkowski were the standard he measured himself against, and called it "an absolute honour" to now be mentioned alongside them. Gonzalez played 17 seasons in the league, 12 of them with the Chiefs, and retired with 15,127 receiving yards.

Kelce would need to make up a gap of more than 2,000 yards to overtake Gonzalez's total. He is currently playing his 14th season and has not reached 1,000 receiving yards in a season since 2022, averaging close to 886 yards a season since then, according to figures cited on the podcast. Kelce is 37, the same age Gonzalez was in his final NFL season. Kelce has not set a date for his own retirement.