Travis 

Kelce

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Kelce has the best receiving production chart of all of the players in this fantasy football player profile series. He’s constantly been elite at everything. The five situations he’s in the most often are the five where he’s ranked in the 95th percentile or better, and the route he runs the most is the route he has the most yards per route run in compared to other tight ends.

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While he is arguably the best receiving tight end in the history of the NFL, fantasy drafters mostly need to know if they should draft Kelce first or Sam LaPorta, so it’s worth looking into why his fantasy production declined last season. The biggest reason is his touchdown total went from a career-high to a tie for his second-lowest in the last seven seasons. Kelce was targeted 19 times when the Chiefs were within 10 yards of scoring in 2022, leading to eight touchdowns. Those 19 targets were the most for a tight end in a season in the last decade. Last season, that was nearly cut in half to 10 targets leading to five touchdowns.

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Kelce is a future Hall of Famer but will be 35 years old soon. While we might not see a decline in the quality of his play, the biggest thing working against him is the Chiefs easing his workload a little bit year by year to prolong his career. That will likely continue for the benefit of Kelce and the Chiefs and detriment to his fantasy value. If Sam LaPorta didn’t have one of the best rookie seasons by a tight end of all time, Kelce would still be the top tight end option. LaPorta pushes him down to second.