Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce admitted that his tendency to play more snaps than his teammate can take its toll.
Kelce, who turns 35 in October, has had a very active off-season, filming TV shows and following his pop star girlfriend Taylor Swift around the world.
During training camp at Missouri Western State University on Saturday, Kelce admitted that rest is becoming increasingly important to him.
“Last year was pretty tough on my body,” Kelce said after practice.
“I’ve had more snaps than a lot of players, if not everyone, in the NFL over the last five, six years, and I’m very proud of that, but I know it’s taken a toll on my body.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce admitted the 2023 season was ‘pretty taxing’ on his body
Kelce believes he has accumulated more snaps over the past five to six seasons than most players
“It’s about giving my body enough rest and the opportunity to train harder and be able to handle a full season of 17 to 20 games.”
Kansas City looks to add ammunition at tight end by signing veteran free agent Irv Smith this offseason and drafting Jared Wiley out of TCU this offseason. They also have Noah Gray on the roster, who was fourth on the Chiefs in catches last season.
Despite this, there are no signs that the Chiefs will diminish Kelce’s role.
Kelce has now been in training camp for almost a week and has not had a single day of rest, and he has shown no indication that he wants to change that.
“This is my sanctuary,” Kelce said. “St. Joe, Year 12. That means I’ve spent almost a year of my life here in the dorms.
“Everyone says it’s pretty grueling, but I like it. There’s something about this place that gets you ready every year, and I’m not going to lie, I got pretty excited when the clock started ticking down to get out here and get this thing going.
‘This is where it all starts. You can say it starts in the off-season, and yes, you want to lay that foundation in the off-season of the leadership and the mentality and things like that.
But that being said, Kelce doesn’t seem to show any signs of wanting to reduce his workload
‘But ultimately, this is where you really find out what the team is made of, how you sharpen the iron, how your guys put your training habits into practice, the attention to detail, and nobody does that better than Coach [Andy] ‘Reid.
Kelce added that he works with a number of personal trainers, saying, “I meet guys all over the place.”
But that aside, he says not much has changed in his offseason routine since the beginning of his NFL career.
‘Every season you find ways to get better at what works for you, [eliminate] “What’s not working, you want to take it a step further every year so you’re always finding ways to climb the ladder to success,” Kelce said.
“I would say I do some things differently, but in the grand scheme of things, there’s really nothing wrong. I just put my nose in the grinder.”