KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs signed four-time All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce to a two-year contract extension that would keep him with the Super Bowl champions through the 2027 season, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because the terms of the extension were not announced.
The 34-year-old Kelce, who was chosen by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2013 draft, already is their career leader with 11,328 yards receiving. He also has 75 touchdown receptions and, most importantly, has helped Kansas City win back-to-back Super Bowls and three Lombardi Trophies in the past five years.
The Chiefs will try to become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls this upcoming season.
Kelce has also become a crossover star, thanks in part to his relationship with pop icon Taylor Swift and his appearances on shows such as “Saturday Night Live.”
The podcast he hosts with his brother and former Eagles center Jason Kelce has become one of the most popular across several genres, and the younger Kelce will soon host a quiz show on Amazon Prime.
Kelce signed a four-year, $57.25 million extension with Kansas City in 2020, which followed a $46 million, five-year deal that he signed in 2016. The new extension is expected to once again make him one of the league's highest-paid tight ends.
Kelce missed the season opener with a knee injury last season, and he skipped the regular-season finale when the Chiefs already were assured of their playoff seeding. Those two games cost him the chance to extend his streak of 1,000-yard seasons to eight; he finished with 984 yards on 93 catches with five touchdown receptions.
When the postseason rolled around, Kelce once again took his performance to another level.
He had seven catches for 71 yards in a wild-card win over Miami, the fourth-coldest game in NFL history. He had five catches for 75 yards and two scores in a divisional win in Buffalo. He had 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown in the AFC title game in Baltimore, and capped it all with nine catches for 93 yards in the Super Bowl against San Francisco.
Along the way, Kelce batted down rumors of retirement, saying: “I have no reason to stop playing football. I love it.”
The extension for Kelce comes one week after the Chiefs announced they had signed coach Andy Reid, general manager Brett Veach and team president Mark Donovan to contract extensions. The team did not say how long those deals would last, but they are expected to keep those three with the team through the 2029 season.
Patrick Mahomes, whom Kelce considers one of his closest friends, already is under contract through the 2031 season. All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, the third piece of their three-player core, signed a five-year, $158.75 million deal in March.
___
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
