Can Travis Kelce catch up to some of Tony Gonzalez’s career numbers?

Last week, the Kansas City Chiefs agreed to a restructured contract for legendary tight end Travis Kelce, giving him a significant pay raise. This new contract makes Kelce the highest paid tight end in the league, which is something I have argued in the past needed to happen.

It also locked Kelce in for the next two years, putting to rest some speculation that he may be considering retirement soon. When the dust settles on this arrangement, Kelce will be finishing up his 14th NFL season, a long time for any player, but especially a tight end.

But will it be enough to get Kelce past Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez in the conversation for “greatest of all time”? I think it depends on the metrics you use.

In terms of pure yardage, Kelce is currently fourth all time among tight ends at 11,328 yards. However, that’s still almost 4,000 yards behind Gonzalez. Even if Travis can average 1000-1100 yards for the next two seasons, he’ll still be well short of Tony in that category (but he will likely end up in 2nd place all time).

Similarly, Kelce currently sits tied for fifth all-time in tight end touchdowns at 74. In this case, Gonzales is actually in second place himself, trailing Antonio Gates. I find it hard to believe that Kelce will score 42 touchdowns in the next two seasons, but he could reasonable end up in second or third place.