If you’ve been caught up in the weeks of breathless conversation about Travis Kelce’s sudden decline — motivated by either on-field or off-field reasons — I don’t know what to tell you. “You need to calm down,” maybe? – What did you expect? “Why did you find the dumbest take machines in the NFL media and take their word for it as gospel?”

Look, it happens. A 35-year-old tight end even seeing the field is a rarity, but last year a 34-year-old tight end led the Chiefs in receptions and receiving yards, so you can’t be complete caught off guard. Everyone should have taken Kelce’s slow start to the 2024 season for what it was: a consequence of several obvious factors that came together to increase the difficulty on Kelce and the entire Chiefs offense. Of course, he’s not quite the player he was five years ago. He doesn’t have to be.

A week after a four-catch, 17-yard performance against the San Francisco 49ers, Kelce led the Chiefs with 10 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown in Chiefs win 27-20 over Las Vegas Raiders. Sometimes, especially on Kelce’s touchdown run, his presence DeAndre Hopkins gave the Raiders defense another established threat to considereven in a limited initial workload. Rookie Xavier Worthy, in an imperfect game, called for some defensive attention. Noah Gray and Justin Watson each caught passes for decent chunks of yards to continue to present Patrick Mahomes with a variety of options. Mahomes had another more characteristic game as the offense ran more smoothly with a few still-too-frequent exceptions.

The Chiefs offense isn’t perfect (or healthy, or complete). Kelce wasn’t perfect either. But maybe with a touchdown now on Kelce’s score, we can stop entertaining the idea that he’s suddenly no longer a legitimate threat on the field. That was always outrageous.

Ultimately, Kelce’s struggles in the first half of the season had been the Chiefs’ struggles. Without the top two wide receivers (in addition to JuJu Smith-Schuster in a likely shorter absence), even a mid-30s Kelce was clearly KC’s biggest game threat. After Kelce occupied the qualifying position pool in 2023 while Rashee Rice prepared in his rookie season, Kelce was put in a similar spot out of necessity earlier this year.

Through training camp and the first few weeks of the season, it was clear that Kelce’s role was intended to shift from being the Atlas of the offense to a position where he wasn’t perpetually the sole focus of opposing defenses. As Hopkins acclimates to the playbook and as Worthy continues to grow into NFL shape, Kelce can still share the workload with his teammates until the playoffs arrive. Until then, his production will ebb and flow as the Chiefs and their opponents fluctuate game-to-game and game-to-game.

While it’s true that the 35-year-old Kelce shouldn’t be asked to carry the team on his back all the time, that’s not because he’s washed up, out of shape or unfocused. Because now it seems to be something like a human. Yes – he is, by NFL standards, old. That fact only makes it all the more remarkable that there still isn’t a more terrifying sight at third for opposing defenses than the old man who is closer to a first-ballot Hall of Fame induction than he is to his rookie season.

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