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One of the stalwarts of fantasy football over the past decade has been Travis Kelce, who enters his age-35 season in 2024. Kelce has been no worse than a top-three tight end in full-PPR formats in every season since 2016. This run of dominance is unmatched and the future Hall of Famer is still considered a top option among tight ends in fantasy.
Kelce has seen a lot of competition for his lofty perch as the top tight end with players like Mark Andrews, Rob Gronkowski, George Kittle, and others coming for his crown. Enter Sam LaPorta, who took the top spot last season among fantasy tight ends and Evan Engram finished at TE2 thanks to 114 receptions and 143 targets.
The battle for the top spot is as heated as ever with LaPorta, Andrews, Trey McBride, Dalton Kincaid, and Kyle Pitts among others vying for supremacy with Kelce. With 2024 around the corner, we have to ask: Is Kelce still the top tight end in fantasy football drafts?
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Travis Kelce's Status Heading Into 2024
Heading into 2024, the status for Kelce is the same as it ever was: he's the top target in a Patrick Mahomes-led offense. Sure, the Chiefs went and added Hollywood Brown in free agency and then splurged for Xavier Worthy in the 2024 NFL Draft. Yes, the same Worthy put up the fastest 40-yard-dash time in NFL Combine history.
Patrick Mahomes behind the back to Travis Kelce lmao pic.twitter.com/ClFbsIQxMw
— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) August 17, 2024
Despite the added target competition, the Chiefs' passing game flows through Kelce. A "down" season for Kelce was still good enough to put up the fourth-best yards per route run (1.92), the second-best first downs per route, and the fifth-highest targets per route run (22.8%) among tight ends that ran at least 100 routes last season.
Kelce is still efficient, a matchup nightmare, and despite his advanced age, aging like fine wine. We have not seen any concerning dropoff in his receiving profile outside of maybe his aDOT (average depth of target) sliding from 9.3 yards in 2020 down to 6.9 last season.
Perhaps that shortened aDOT is a reaction to the opposing defenses' reliance on the two-deep shell that condenses defenses and makes teams run more plays at a shorter depth. Even with that dip, Kelce is still as strong as ever.
Is Travis Kelce Still TE1 This Season?
While Kelce is still very much in the overall TE1 conversation heading into this season, the consensus shifts based on the platform between Kelce, Sam LaPorta, and Trey McBride all being TE1 overall on rankings across the fantasy football industry. Kelce is the legacy case of consistent, bankable production with an elite quarterback who is still the top target on his team.
LaPorta isn't even his team's top target; that's Amon-Ra St. Brown. That's a bit concerning even if you love everything about what LaPorta brings to the table, which it's safe to say we do after finishing as the overall TE1 as a rookie last season.
McBride came on ridiculously strong in 2023, averaging just shy of 15 fantasy points per game from Week 8 to the end of the season. That said, the Arizona Cardinals did draft Marvin Harrison Jr., which could relegate McBride to the second target.
Still, a strong duo like that -- just like LaPorta and St. Brown -- could consolidate targets and ensure both duos eat in their respective offenses. We didn't even mention Mark Andrews, Dalton Kincaid, or Kyle Pitts, who could enjoy transcendent seasons at a position that we've been accustomed to having few elite options. But where does Kelce fall into this mix?
I have Kelce as TE2 behind LaPorta, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of the tight ends mentioned here finished as overall TE1 this season. With so many elite tight end options available, Kelce's ADP is volatile, where you can draft him from the end of the third round to deeper in the fourth round. While a player's dropoff is usually more of a cliff than a gradual decline, Kelce still has elite, TE1- upside as he always has.
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