NFL1000: Has Travis Kelce Dethroned Gronk as the NFL's Best Tight End?

2016 has been a bit of a wasteland for NFL tight ends.

Rob Gronkowski, the consensus personification of the position, succumbed to injuries in early December and will miss the rest of the season. Martellus Bennett, acquired by the New England Patriots to give them the perfect 1-2 punch with Gronk, has been dealing with his own injury issues and has just 14 catches for 164 yards in his last six games.

The Cincinnati Bengals' Tyler Eifert was placed on injured reserve this week, per Jim Owczarski of Cincinnati.com. The Seattle Seahawks' Jimmy Graham has been somewhat productive, but he remains inexplicably hidden in the team's game plan, especially in the red zone (which was the reason the Seahawks traded a first-round pick and their starting center to get him in the first place).

There are a few year-to-year stalwarts like the Carolina Panthers' Greg Olsen, Dallas Cowboys' Jason Witten, Washington's Jordan Reed and the Tennessee Titans' Delanie Walker, but few tight ends have run the table for their offenses this season, which makes the recent exploits of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce all the more remarkable.

Kelce is playing at a level unmatched by anyone at his position this season. You’d have to go back a few years to find an equivalent disparity in production between one man and the rest of the pack.

Uncredited/Associated Press

In Kelce’s most recent six-game stretch, in which the Chiefs have posted a 4-2 record—the two losses are by identical 19-17 scores to the Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers—he's had ridiculous production, especially compared to every other tight end in the league.

From Week 11 through 16, he’s been targeted 56 times with 42 receptions for 651 yards (15.5 yards per reception), 393 yards after the catch, one touchdown and six missed tackles forced, per Pro Football Focus. Among tight ends taking at least 50 percent of their team’s snaps, Kelce leads all at the position in each of those categories.

Week	Grade	TE Rank
16	80	1
15	74	1
14	73	1
13	79	1
12	77	2
11	73	1
10	72	6
9	73	7
8	75	2

The yardage stat is particularly spectacular. Consider that Kelce’s 393 yards after the catch exceeds the second-most productive tight end in the last six weeks, the Philadelphia Eagles' Zach Ertz, who has 375 yards total.

So, what makes Kelce so special? When the Chiefs took him out of Cincinnati in the top of the third round of the 2013 draft, they knew they were getting a “big receiver” prototype. He was another in the new breed of tight ends who spend far more time outside the formation than in-line—where blocking is a bigger priority.

Over the last four seasons, Kelce has put some effort into his blocking, and there are examples of him springing gaps for Kansas City’s running backs and all-purpose shredder Tyreek Hill.

But when you have a weapon like this—a 6’5”, 255-pound receiver with outstanding route awareness, the ability to read and react to defenses, strength to power through potential tacklers and the cut speed to leave defenders in the dust—you use him for the designed purpose, which is to wreck opposing game plans.

Here are a few examples of how Kelce has wrecked those plans over the last few weeks, and why he’s as important to the 11-4 Chiefs’ playoff progress as anyone on the roster.

This is the 80-yard touchdown Kelce scored against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. It’s an excellent example of two important principles in head coach Andy Reid’s offense: Kelce’s ability to manufacture yards after the catch (the Chiefs have a ton of passing concepts in which the idea is just to get the ball to Kelce short and watch him run over people) and the importance of blocking coordination on screen plays.

Here, Kelce takes a quick hitch from Alex Smith at the line of scrimmage. Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz (71) and tight end Demetrius Harris (84) are already in place to take Denver’s defense to the woodshed. Watch how Schwartz seals linebacker Todd Davis (51) and Harris deals with safety Darian Stewart (26). Then, it’s up to Kelce to navigate the openings, which he does expertly. Receiver Jeremy Maclin (19) gets a last-second block on cornerback Aqib Talib (21), and the Chiefs display a dominance one doesn’t usually see against this particular defense.

This 17-yard completion from Smith to Kelce in the third quarter isn’t quite as exciting, but it does show how well Kelce uses route cuts and his understanding of the breaking points of pass defenses to get himself open.

He’s in the middle of a trips formation to the right side. Broncos safety Justin Simmons (31) is clearly expecting Kelce to run a seam route. You can see Kelce start to fake that way, but he makes a quick cut to the inside, gets the slant pass wide open and rumbles for a first down on 2nd-and-13.

It’s these often-overlooked details that define great players at any position, and Kelce is so quick in his cuts to full speed that he’s able to fake defenders out of position quite often. Here, it takes Simmons completely out of coverage.

Kelce blew up the Atlanta Falcons defense with eight catches for 140 yards in Week 13, and this 35-yarder is a great example of what all great, deep boundary receivers must do—define and bend their routes with the appropriate speed and awareness to make the pass tough to defend.

Kelce has rookie safety Keanu Neal (22) right up on him at the line of scrimmage with no deep coverage cushion, which means that Neal has to hold Kelce from the snap wherever he goes.

We’ve been touting Neal all season at NFL1000. He’s been great for the most part, but here he just gets abused. Kelce starts out in what looks like a simple wheel route, but Kelce extends it to the boundary and Neal is lost before he even gets started. This game was a lesson in advanced coverage for Atlanta’s young defense, and Kelce was the professor.

Let’s review one more play against the Broncos—this is the Chiefs’ last play during Week 12 in overtime before Cairo Santos kicked the field goal that won it.

Here, Kelce doesn’t adjust his assignment for the blitz. The Chiefs trust their blockers and know that with safety T.J. Ward (43) joining edge-rusher Von Miller (58) off the defensive left side, there are going to be openings for Kelce to exploit. 

What that blitz does is leave a huge area for Kelce over the middle for the short pass for Smith. From there, he’s just finding free space for the 16-yard gain that set Santos up for success.

Finally, this 44-yard completion against the Buccaneers in Week 11 is one of the prettiest routes you’ll see Kelce run. 

He’s in motion from left to right pre-snap, which gives him the indicator that he has man coverage with cornerback Vernon Hargreaves (28) motioning with him. Kelce starts in a straight line from the right slot and then shakes to the numbers, leaving Hargreaves struggling to match his outside cut. 

He then times Smith’s deep pass, and Hargreaves is a good three yards behind him at the catch point, despite the fact that Kelce had to slow up slightly to catch the pass. There are few players who bend routes away from coverage better than Kelce, and Hargreaves got the wrong end of it in this case.

Is Kelce the NFL’s standout tight end? I don’t think there can be any question about that. But all things being equal, is he the best at his position?

I’d say he’s most similar to Eifert, though he’s a slightly better route-runner than Eifert, and Eifert is perhaps a more effective red-zone target.

Graham is more explosive when the Seahawks remember to use him correctly, but Kelce has it over Graham in route running and overall toughness in short spaces.

Olsen is tougher and a great route-runner, but Kelce is just a hair quicker.

Gronk is a different breed of cat. He has a combination of size, toughness, agility and rare blocking ability we’ve never seen before. But as they say, availability is an attribute, and Kelce’s the last (and best) man standing.

If he’s able to continue to develop as a blocker, Kelce could develop into the unquestioned gold standard at the tight end position.

Right now, he’s the most consistent matchup nightmare for any team facing the Chiefs, and in that regard (especially in the postseason) his value to the franchise is incalculable.