Travis Kelce’s touchdown for the Kansas City Chiefs has had plenty of people online swooning over him as he gave his team an early lead on Sunday.
When you look back over the years, there have been plenty of quarterback-receiver partnerships that have helped not only given us some great moments, but also shape the league as we know it. You think of the likes of Joe Montana and Jerry Rice for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1980s, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin for the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s or Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison’s tandem for the Indianapolis Colts in the 2000s.
All of those were between a quarterback and their wide receiver specifically, but we are starting to see the emergence of the quarterback & tight-end duos in the National Football League. Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski have theirs from their days with the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lamar Jackson and Mark Andrews have been impressive for the Baltimore Ravens whilst the 49ers have Jimmy Garoppolo and George Kittle to revive the Montana-Rice combo of old.
However, there is arguably none that have been as dominant in the NFL over the past few years as the one the Kansas City Chiefs have developed between Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Travis Kelce moves to the mountaintop?
Since Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starting quarterback in the 2018 season, Kelce has been one of the best pass-catchers in football, regardless of position, with four straight 1,000-yard seasons, and looking on course to make it five as he entered today’s game with the Los Angeles Rams with 855.
In that timespan, he’s also got into the endzone 46 times in the regular season, and a further 11 times in the playoffs, so if ever the Chiefs need to get points on the board, he’s going to be one of the first men they call on, and that’s exactly what he did this afternoon against the Rams.
If his numbers aren’t impressive enough, then what he does with the eye test will confirm just how great he is, as he left Jalen Ramsey, one of the best receivers in the game, clutching at thin air as he showed off great finesse to get the ball, and then power to put the ball into the endzone.
Video: Travis Kelce scores opening touchdown for the Kansas City Chiefs:
Not only did he manage to get the Chiefs on the board, but it also brought him the admiration of a lot of reporters, analysts and former players on social media as they couldn’t contain themselves at just how good they found the play:
Kelce has put himself in a position to be considered as one of the best, and maybe even the best to ever play the position, and with plays like that, and how easy he made it look, you can certainly see just how great he is at his job.