It’s not your imagination: After back-to-back seasons of gobbling up more airtime than a score bug, Travis Kelce has all but disappeared from the airwaves on NFL Sundays.
Despite having reached the sort of cultural saturation point that comes with being romantically entangled with the most famous woman on the face of the planet, the Chiefs tight end is no longer haunting the NFL’s in-game ad breaks. Whereas Kelce once was inescapable whenever CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN/ABC would throw to commercial during their NFL windows, he’s assumed a much lower profile thus far this fall—as has his quarterback.
While ads featuring Kelce have aired 95,614 times in the last 30 days, according to iSpot.tv data, fewer than 25 of his commercials have popped up this season during nationally televised NFL games. By way of comparison, Kelce’s pitches for brands such as State Farm, Lowe’s and DirecTV aired 114 times in NFL broadcasts during just the first three weeks of the 2023 campaign. At the midway point of the current season, Kelce has assumed a lower profile than J.D. Salinger.
Active NFL players who have more in-game clout than Kelce include third-string Patriots quarterback Tommy DeVito, whose Progressive commercial has aired in 53 league windows since the season kicked off in September, and Bucs backup Teddy Bridgewater, who reps Progressive in a new spot that has run in 40 NFL breaks since the insurance company rolled it out six weeks ago.
Kelce’s disappearing act coincides with a significant downgrade for Patrick Mahomes, who was the sports world’s most overexposed shill in 2023 and 2024. Through last week’s slate, Mahomes’ frequency has dwindled considerably, with audiovisual evidence of his side gigs for State Farm and Head & Shoulders emerging just 86 times since the season got underway on Sept. 4. Given that Mahomes could be seen in no fewer than seven different ads that ran during Fox’s Week 3 Bears-Chiefs broadcast two years ago, the relative dearth of his in-game commercial airings in 2025 is hard to overlook.
Not only has Mahomes ceded the top spot to the ubiquitous Peyton Manning—according to iSpot, the Hall of Famer’s ads have shown up 248 times during NFL games, with Bud Light accounting for 180 of those placements—but in terms of frequency, he’s no longer among the top five endorsers. Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is No. 2 behind Manning, putting in 205 in-game appearances, while Justin Jefferson (140) and Travis Hunter (134) are generating numbers by way of their own sponsorship deals. Mahomes’ AFC rival Josh Allen occupies the No. 5 slot with 124 gameday airings, the majority of which have come courtesy of his new Pepsi campaign (71). As it happens, Allen’s co-star in the “Tailgate Crashers” initiative is Jefferson.
Barring a sudden spurt in Sunday State Farm spend, Mahomes is in danger of being overtaken by MLB superstar Shohei Ohtani (82 in-game New Balance airings) and Eli Manning. Peyton’s little brother has graced your screen on 70 separate gameday occasions, most of which were in the service of hyping the Jersey Mike’s sandwich chain.
Kelce’s diminished gameday presence coincides with strategic changes made in recent weeks by many of the brands he represents. For example, while official NFL sponsor Lowe’s is one of the league’s most visible backers, the home-improvement retailer effectively benched Kelce in favor of Barkley. While the core of the Lowe’s superstar roster is still largely in place (Dak Prescott, Christian McCaffrey and C.J. Stroud have all returned for this fall’s “Earn Your Sunday” campaign), Kelce and Pats phenom Drake Maye were not re-upped.
For what it’s worth, if Maye keeps playing as the level he’s reached in his second season in New England—Vegas books have him listed as the second-leading candidate for MVP (+400), trailing only 2024 winner Allen (+150)—the 23-year-old is going to earn back that lost Lowe’s paycheck in a hurry. Maye currently reps one brand that buys time on national TV, although his spots for the financial advisory firm Betterment have yet to break through during any of this season’s NFL windows.
Mahomes’ in-game hit rate has been hampered by similar staffing decisions. While State Farm played the sprockets off Mahomes’ new ad with Meghan Trainor earlier this fall, the insurance company’s beefed-up talent roster has created more opportunities for the likes of Derrick Henry, Aidan Hutchinson and NFL broadcasters Ryan Fitzpatrick and Charissa Thompson. (Hutchinson’s new Head & Shoulders deal also has eaten into Mahomes’ screentime.)
All that having been said, Mahomes is expected to make up some ground with Dick’s Sporting Goods in the latter half of the season, as the retailer tends to reserve the bulk of its NFL spend to coincide with the November-December holiday shopping spree. In the meantime, as much as the downturn in appearances by Mahomes and Kelce has proven to be a welcome respite for the anti-KC crowd, it would be foolhardy to suggest that their reduced commercial exposure is a function of “Chiefs fatigue.”
After the official Sunday ratings numbers land, the AFC champs will have played in each of the three most-watched NFL broadcasts of the fall. Per Nielsen, the Chiefs’ Sept. 14 loss to Philly, a rematch of Super Bowl LIX, drew a season-high 33.8 million viewers on Fox, while KC’s Oct. 12 brawl with Detroit is holding down the No. 3 spot with 27.4 million viewers. The official Nielsen data isn’t expected to be released until Tuesday afternoon, but Buffalo’s 28-21 victory in the 4:25 p.m. ET window—which aired in 100% of CBS’s local markets—is expected to have served up at least 32 million viewers.