Travis Kelce is a Do-Not Draft in fantasy football this year
Travis Kelce helped lead the Cheifs to win the Super Bowl last season, and he was the target for Patrick Mahomes. But, the aging star had a bit of backdrop performance wise, last season. In this article, we're going to be going over why Travis Kelce's run as the supreme tight end is over, and who we would pick over him.
With the Kansas City Cheifs last season, Kelce caught 93 passes for 984 yards and five touchdowns, with an average of 10.6 yards per reception. This was the first time Kelce didn't catch for more than 1,000 yards since the 2015 season, though he did miss two games this season. Age is also a factor for Kelce, as he will turn 35 this season where most tight ends his age have already retired or are getting almost nothing of the workload. But Travis is quite the opposite, as he is getting almost all of the passes that Mahomes throws and it might finally be taking a toll on his game.
The crazy thing is, Kelce is still being picked as the first tight end off the board, right ahead of the TE1 last season Sam Laporta, who posted a statline of 86/889/10. When Laporta gets more of the targets, he will easily become the better fantasy option than Kelce. Another option for a tight end who will also be better than Kelce this season or just as good will be Trey Mcbride. Mcbride posted a statline of 81/825/3 last season, which doesn't seem that significant until you account for the fact that he didnt get more than four targets in a game until Week 8 of last season, where he then exploded on the field. There are two more dark horse candidates for being a better option than Kelce that you can draft in the even later rounds and that is Kyle Pitts and Evan Engram.
Even though Pitts has been a bit of a letdown since he's entered the league, with a new quarterback and coach this season, we expect him to show his true potential. Last season, he had 53 receptions for 667 yards and 3 touchdowns, but this year we predict for him to get around 70/920/6. Evan Engram got an insane 143 targets last season and arguably had a better season than Kelce with 114/963/4, but was on a struggling Jaguars team so he didn't get the recognition he deserves. Because of this, Engrams ADP is 87 compared to Kelce's 27. Nonetheless, we would draft Sam Laporta and Trey Mcrbide over Kelce, or just wait to get a steal in Kyle Pitts or Evan Engram.
Article Written By: Jackson Corona