As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare for their first playoff game of 2025, Travis Kelce didn’t hold back when talking about Patrick Mahomes and what having the 29-year-old quarterback throw to him all of these years has meant to him.
Kelce spoke with Chris Berman ahead of the Chiefs’ divisional round match-up against the Houston Texans and showered his quarterback with praise.
“It’s been such a pleasure,” Kelce said. “He’s every bit of a superstar off the field as he is on the field. I consider him family. There’s one common denominator from the Chiefs my entire career and that’s Andy Reid, but this thing really took off when Patrick Mahomes got here. I know everybody knows that, but what I see in the building, his leadership, his ability to relate to everybody and motivate everybody, and be accountable, it’s unique, and it’s like nothing else.”
Kelce is 100% with what he said in this snippet here. While Kelce arrived to Kansas City the same time that Andy Reid did, the Chiefs became what they are now when Mahomes took over as the starting quarterback. Alex Smith helped the Chiefs become a winning franchise and got them to the playoffs most years but Mahomes got them to the playoffs every year and started winning the games that really mattered.
The Chiefs had not been to a Super Bowl in 50 years before Mahomes took over. Since he’s been the starter, they’ve been to the Super Bowl four times and won three of them. They’ve made the AFC Championship game every year that he’s been a starter (2025 results pending) and that was not something this fan base was accustomed to before Mahomes was the starting quarterback.
Travis Kelce can’t help but heap praise onto Patrick Mahomes
That’s not all Kelce said in this interview, however. The long-time Chiefs tight end then made a comment that will have Chiefs fans amped up but might irritate any non-Chiefs fans.
“He’s the greatest to ever do it. You can’t change my mind, otherwise.”
Some people might not like this comment considering that a lot of people have crowned Tom Brady as the greatest of all-time. Brady has seven Super Bowl titles and has been the opposing quarterback in two of the Chiefs’ playoff losses (the AFC Championship Game in 2019 and Super Bowl LV). The head-to-head wins are defiintely always going to benefit Brady but if Mahomes can keep winning Super Bowls, getting to his number of total wins would help push him past Brady.
Kelce’s comments are going to surprise people but they shouldn’t. He’s played with Mahomes for the past seven years and until the Texas Tech product took over as the starter, Kelce and the Chiefs didn’t have much success in the playoffs. That changed with Patrick Mahomes.
Way to fire us up, Kelce!