7. Travis Kelce– Normally when tight ends come into the league, you automatically assume that they are guys that block, they play inside and they’ll be targeted in the red zone more than 50 percent of the time. You may also think that they’re guys that can catch, but they aren’t necessarily the quickest. That hasn’t been the case for the guy I’m about to discuss. Travis Kelce is the third of five newcomers to the list this year, my seventh best player on my list and my top ranked tight end. When you watch the way the Kansas City Chiefs use him, he’s basically a tight end being used as a wide receiver and I’ve never seen a tight end do half the things that he can on the field. I’ve never seen a tight end accelerate as if he were a slot receiver and when he catches the football, he just knows when to turn it on in the open field. As I always say, catching the football is great, but what you do with it once it’s in your hands is what people will talk about. He’s such a dynamic player and can any of you tell me when you’ve ever seen a tight end being used on a bubble screen? He has and this happened in 2016 against the Denver Broncos! He makes the catch and he’s up the field. He’s the ultimate mismatch for defenders and I’ve heard some of his peers refer to him as a “wide receiver in the body of a tight end” and that’s an accurate description. He runs vertical routes down the field and those are most routes that tight ends aren’t built to cover. As a defense, you have to always know where he is on the field and you have to gameplan with him as the top priority and always have two guys around him at all times because if you don’t, you will pay. He’s a scary player and when he has it going, he keeps his foot on the gas pedal. We saw just how much of an impact he has on the Chiefs offense when he was knocked out of the Wild Card game in January with a concussion and Kansas City’s offense looked discombobulated without him. We haven’t seen a Chiefs tight end playing at such a high level since that guy that wore the number 88 for the red and white.
