It’s not the partying. It’s not the acting. It’s not his girlfriend, Taylor Swift.
“It’s football, baby!” Travis Kelce said in response to the mounting criticism over his early season struggles.
Kelce spoke out for the first time about his rough start to the NFL season after being ripped in the media and going viral for a clip of him looking miserable on the Kansas City Chiefs bench on Sunday night.
Through the first three games of the season, Kelce has put up some of the lowest numbers of his illustrious career.
With fans and analysts ripping the future hall of famer, Kelce addressed the criticism during this week’s episode of the New Heights podcast.
Speaking with now-retired brother Jason Kelce, Travis said: “I’ve had a lot of catches in this league, man. I’m not worried about the catches and the yards, and all of that, I have the most fun when I get the ball thrown my way, I mean, who doesn’t?
“It has everything to do with execution and just making sure we’re doing everything we can to win these football games, that’s always going to be the goal. I think everyone saw my drop in the fourth quarter and the crucial third down, just trying to do too much before putting the ball away.
“That’s probably the biggest thing for me is making the play in big-time moments like that. I think with how defences are playing us right now, I’m not really getting a lot of opportunities to make plays down the field, but not using that as an excuse.
“Moving forward, still trying to make sure I can help the team out in that regard knowing I’ve been that weapon for us in the past. Moving forward, everyone’s just tweaking their game in the right direction.”
Through three games – all wins by the Chiefs – Kelce has eight catches for 69 yards and no TDs. His 8.6 yards-per-reception average is two full yards lower than his career-worst, which came last year at 10.6.
Kelce isn’t worried about his stat-sheet struggles, though, and says that quarterback Patrick Mahomes is doing a great job leading the Kansas City offence to victories.
“Whatever it is, it’s football, baby,” Kelce said. “I’m not getting caught up in getting the targets and all that, I just want to have a successful offence and I think Pat is doing a great job of finding the open guy and making the right decisions right now, and we have to keep finding, it’s a new offence, new players, new pieces and we’re just finding how to have success throughout the season.
“As an offence, you’re going to go through these ups and downs throughout the season and you just want to make sure that you clean up all the mistakes, you’re making sure that you’re communicating so that everybody understands exactly where we’re going moving forward.
“Nobody does it better than coach (Andy) Reid and Pat Mahomes in that regard.”
Earlier this week, Mahomes told reporters that although the offence is running plays for Kelce, opposing defences are doing everything in their power to stop the all-pro from getting the ball as often as he has in the past.
“It’s crazy because teams still — the respect factor they have for Travis is just unreal. It’s well-deserved,” Mahomes said. “We’re calling a lot of plays for Travis and it’s like two or three people are going to him. He understands — that’s the great thing about him is he wants to make an impact on the game, but he wants to win at the end of the day.
“I’m gonna try to do my best to keep feeding him the ball whenever he’s there, whenever he’s open. I think the more Rashee (Rice) makes plays, the more we’re able to run the football, the more we can get (Xavier) Worthy involved, I think that’s going to open Travis up more. People are really emphasizing trying to take him away and that’s getting other guys open.”
Kelce was spotted by cameras on Sunday night looking miserable on the sidelines, with social media quick to post snaps of the downtrodden star.
Kelce will get a chance to turn things around for himself on Sunday when the Chiefs travel to Los Angeles to face the Chargers.
In 18 career games against the Chiefs’ AFC West rival, Kelce has 100 catches for 1,223 yards and eight touchdowns – so maybe a breakout game is in order.