Travis Kelce acknowledged that he could be playing “better” after his slow start to the season and looking sad on the sidelines during Sunday’s game.
“We’re finding ways to win games, but we’re not playing our best football. Everybody can clean it up. I think everyone saw my drop in the fourth quarter with that crucial third down,” Kelce said on Wednesday’s episode of his “New Heights” podcast with brother, Jason Kelce.
The Kansas City Chiefs athlete admitted that he was “trying to do too much before putting the ball away,” and he needs to focus more on “making the play in big time moments.”
“I think with how defenses 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, [I’m] still trying to make sure that I can help the team out in that regard,” he continued, referring to having more defensive players for the opposite team cover him than other tight ends and wide receivers.
Travis, 34, said that his whole team is working on “tweaking their game in the right direction” and getting “better” before heading out to play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Jason, who retired earlier this year after playing as a center for his career, pointed out that both Travis’ coach, Andy Reid, and his quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, each said they were trying to plan plays with Travis, but the opposing team defenses were also “working hard at taking Kelce out of the picture.”
“Whatever it is, it’s football baby! Come on now, I’m not getting caught up in getting the targets and all that. I just wanna have a successful offense, and I think Pat’s doing a great job of finding the open guy and making the right decisions right now,” he said.
Travis doubled down that the Chiefs are “finding how to have success throughout the season” and acknowledged that the team will “go through these ups and downs throughout the season.”
“You just wanna make sure that you clean up all the mistakes, that you’re making sure you’re communicating, so everybody understands exactly where we’re going moving forward, and nobody does it better than Coach Reid and Pat Mahomes in that regard,” he shared.
Jason chimed in and understood how Travis could be “frustrated” by not being able to get open to catch the ball and score a touchdown.
“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? But it has everything to do with execution and just making sure we’re doing whatever we can to win these football games, man, and that’s always gonna be the goal,” he explained.
Travis concluded by saying that as long as the Chiefs — who are 3-0 — continue “winning football games,” they are “good to go, baby!”
The three-time Super Bowl champion shared the sentiments after he went viral for looking downcast on the sidelines during the Chiefs game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
While some fans and sports commentators speculated that he may have looked sad because his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, was not in the crowd, other people pointed out that Travis has not had as much of a successful season in years past.
Travis currently has had eight receptions for 69 yards and zero touchdowns over the last three games. Meanwhile, by this time last year, he had already garnered 17 receptions for 155 yards and two touchdowns.