By ERIC BLUM, US SPORTS REPORTER
Published: 12:22 EDT, 11 August 2025 | Updated: 12:22 EDT, 11 August 2025
Travis Kelce's statistical decline during the 2024 NFL season as caused him another setback several months after its Super Bowl-loss conclusion - a lower ranking in fantasy football.
Kelce has been a dominant force on the gridiron for the better part of a decade, consistently ranking as the top tight-end pick in fantasy football drafts, a stat that held true last year.
Yet, with Kelce's drop in catches, yards, and touchdowns a year ago, taking the now-35-year-old with a high-round draft pick did not lead to a great return on investment.
He finished as the No 7 tight end in most fantasy leagues, dropping his 2025 projection to the sixth-best tight end in the NFL.
Although Kelce appears to have showed up to training camp for the Kansas City Chiefs in phenomenal shape, those projections cast doubt that Taylor Swift's boyfriend can still be an elite NFL tight end.
Those projections have a clear top three for the position - Las Vegas' Brock Bowers, San Francisco's George Kittle, and Arizona's Tre McBride.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is projected to be the sixth-best fantasy tight end
Kelce has routinely been the best tight end in fantasy football throughout his career, until 2024
Also ahead of Kelce in ESPN's fantasy football projections for the 2025 season at tight end are a pair of NFC North pass-catchers in Detroit's Sam LaPorta and Minnesota's TJ Hockenson.
Kelce sits just ahead of Cleveland's David Njoku, Baltimore's Mark Andrews, and Denver's Eva Engram, as the clear top nine of fantasy projections have separated themselves from everyone else who plays the position in the league.
Another football projections are not as harsh against Kelce, as he is the second-highest rated tight end in Madden 26.
Yet, the video game did downgrade Kelce severely for its latest edition, bringing his rating down to a 93 from a 99 overall, which is the maximum-possible player rating.
Kittle is far and away the highest-rated tight end in the game with a 98 overall, with McBride (92), Andrews (91), and Bowers (90) right behind Kelce.
Unlike most other tight ends listed around his projection, Kelce comes into the 2025 season without a true disrupter from being his quarterback's favorite target.
Patrick Mahomes has consistently tried to get Kelce involved in the offense, with the duo keen on retribution this year after not completing a three-peat.
Kansas City ChiefsTravis Kelce