Kelce earned a target on the second drive and recorded his first catch on the third. The veteran tight end remains efficient at age-35, though the Chiefs clearly worked on distributing the ball as much as possible here. Kelce is once again a TE1 entering the season.

In the 2024 regular season, Kelce was on the field for the third-highest snap count (939) and ran the fourth-most routes (575) of his career, so this is good news for fantasy purposes. Reid acknowledged Kelce is “getting older” and that he is willing to “be the bad guy in some cases” by pulling Kelce off the field when he needs to. While Kelce is a longshot to finish as the overall TE1, he seemingly remains a safe bet to produce a top-12 positional finish. Monitoring his participation in training camp will give us more information.

The long-time Chiefs tight end will turn 36-years-old this upcoming season and has had rumors floating around about retirement. However, he indicated that choosing to play over retirement was not a difficult choice. Kelce said, “I know I’m getting older, but at the same time I still feel like I’ve got a lot I can prove in this league.” He is on the final year of his contract, which he addressed as well by saying “I got one year on this contract, I know that, and we’ll try and figure out something for next year...right now I’m focused on winning a championship this year.” Kelce is open to returning for more years beyond 2025. A championship run may be a driving factor behind that, as the Kansas City organization is perennially in the mix, thanks in large part to Kelce and his chemistry with Patrick Mahomes.

Kelce, 35, mulled retirement this offseason after turning in the worst year since his 2013 rookie campaign. Kelce posted a career-low three touchdowns last season and averaged a meager 8.5 YPR on 97 receptions. While the raw receiving totals remained intact, there’s no doubt that Kelce’s explosiveness has fallen off in recent years. He’s now had back-to-back seasons with a career-low YPR, and despite his quarterback praising him for being “motivated to go out there and have an even better year than he had this last (season),” it’s fair to wonder how much Kelce has left in the tank as far as being a high-end producer is concerned. While the future hall of famer will likely continue to produce more than the average tight end — as he did last season, his days of being a yearly 1,000-yard producer are likely behind him.