With the regular season opener days away, Travis Kelce was limited at Kansas City Chiefs practice on Monday.
The Kansas City Chiefs are days away from kicking off their Super Bowl defense tour at Arrowhead Stadium against the Houston Texans. This offseason, the team signed three of their key players to long-term contract extensions, ensuring they had the opportunity to become the NFL‘s next dynasty. But one of those players is dealing with an injury before Thursday night’s game.
Star tight end Travis Kelce was limited in practice on Monday with a knee injury and ended up on Kansas City’s injury report.
You know football is back when we're getting practice injury reports... #Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was limited at practice today with a knee injury.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 7, 2020
Tuesday’s practice will be an indicator if Kelce will play in season opener
Kelce didn’t participate in team drills, but was on hand for stretching exercises and positional drills. The true indicator will come on Tuesday, when the team will give an official designation for Thursday’s game.
Back in March, the tight end market was set by Austin Hooper, who signed a three-year, $42 million contract with the Cleveland Browns, making him the highest-paid player at his position. After seeing Hooper’s deal, the Chiefs wanted to put Kelce back near the top of the tight end salary rankings and finalized a four-year, $57.25 million extension last month. That deal happened mere hours after the San Francisco 49ers gave George Kittle a five-year, $75 million contract.
Last year, Kelce caught 97 passes for 1,229 receiving yards and five touchdowns in the regular season. In the Chiefs’ three playoff games (including Super Bowl 54), Kelce caught 19-of-22 passes from quarterback Patrick Mahomes for 207 yards and four touchdowns.
After receiving their Super Bowl rings last week, the entire Chiefs team has set their focus on making another trip to the big game. Having Kelce on the field will no doubt help make that task easier. We should get a better idea of the tight’s end’s status for the Texans game come Tuesday afternoon.