Earlier this week, it was reported that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had signed a new two-year contract that will see him make $34.25 million. Now, Kelce is opening up about how grateful he is to have gotten this deal.
Kelce Is ‘Grateful’
“I’m not a guy that sits out.” Kelce, 34, said on his “New Heights” podcast, “I’m not a guy that holds out. I’m a guy that loves coming into the building, and the Chiefs know that. So, for them to want to get this done for me knowing how much blood, sweat and tears that I put into this thing, I’m extremely grateful.”
Kelce’s new contract makes him the highest-paid NFL tight end. With an average salary of $17.125 million over the next two seasons, and it’s clear that this means the world to him.
“I’m so excited and so thankful to this organization for getting it done, making me feel appreciated and compensated the right way, and on top of that I got to move the needle for the tight end room,” he said. “It’s everyone else’s job to keep making that tight end AAV [average annual value] go up and up with every single contract that’s better than mine in the future.
“I’m so fricking thankful to [general manager] Brett Veach, [president] Mark Donovan, Coach [Andy] Reid — Big Red, I love you, big guy — and obviously [team owner] Clark Hunt. The Hunt family has been unbelievable to not only myself and this Kansas City community, but they’ve just been so generous since I’ve been here in making it feel like home,” he added. “For the past [11] years I’ve been able to make this place exactly that, and I’ve loved every single second of it and I’m going to love the next two years playing here in Kansas City and we’ll see what happens after that.”
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Chiefs General Manager Speaks Out
After Kelce signed his contract on Monday, the Chiefs’ general manager Brett Veach spoke out to talk about how important he is to the team.
“Hard to put in words what Travis means to this organization, this city, and he was certainly a priority to adjust his contract for us and it was something that was important for Clark [Hunt],” Veach said. “So very fitting that Travis [is] now the highest-paid tight end in these two years.”
“Every now and then you have one of these guys that are outliers and certainly Travis is one of those players,” Veach replied when asked how much longer Kelce can play. “Today we had a chance to get out there in Phase 2 [of the offseason program] and guys were out there running around, and Travis was the first guy in line, and I mean he looked like he was 28 years old.”
Related: Travis Kelce Reveals Why He Doesn’t Have Mail Delivered To His Home Anymore
‘Everybody Got Paid This Offseason’
Kelce isn’t the only Chiefs player to get a raise. The team’s defensive tackle Chris Jones and quarterback Patrick Mahomes both got pay increases as well.
“We got the nucleus together and paid, baby,” Kelce said. “Everybody got paid this offseason. I love it.”
Kelce is more popular than ever right now, so it’s easy to see why he secured this major contract. It will certainly be interesting to see how his next season with the Chiefs goes for him!