Travis Kelce entered his 14th NFL season, and it is widely expected to be his last. So naturally, the Kansas City Chiefs are squeezing every ounce out of him. They have relied on him for showing up beyond his tight end duties. Now, the team is asking him to do it again for an emergency role. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub made the plan public.
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“I definitely thought about it, and I said to myself, ‘We need to get Kelce,’” Dave Toub told the reporters. “Because Kelce’s our guy. You can dial him up in two snaps, and he’s ready to go, but we need to practice it. The other guy that does it now is Gray, Noah Gray. So, two really good athletes that fit the bill.”
Toub was answering questions about Jacksonville’s recent crisis. The Jaguars learned the price of a missing long snapper on Sunday when three-time Pro Bowler Ross Matiscik hurt his shoulder in the first quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles. Defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton took over. His high snap disrupted the timing on a late missed extra point. Then he snapped for Cam Little’s 57-yard field goal, which ultimately won the game 19-17.
His teammate Travon Walker said Hamilton does not long snap in practice. Toub wants his emergency long-snapper to practice.
The Chiefs have the same exposure. Usually, NFL teams carry one long snapper. James Winchester is the only one on Kansas City’s depth chart. He has played every Chiefs game since 2015, with his streak standing at 205 games, playoffs included (as of January 2026). The Chiefs re-signed him in March on a one-year, $1.75 million deal.
The Chiefs already lived the long-snapper crisis in August 2024. Winchester left a preseason game against the Detroit Lions with a shoulder injury. Noah Gray snapped to punter Matt Araiza on Harrison Butker’s 56-yard field goal.
The second-string tight end had never long-snapped in a game at any level. Kelce could not help, as his day ended after the second possession. After Gray’s debut, Toub made the 11-time Pro Bowler the backup long snapper for Kansas City, calling him “dynamite.”
Even before that, in 2016, he said moving from a long snap to a short snap is hard. That’s why he wanted the star tight end to focus on long snaps only. Then, before the 2020 season’s divisional round, he named Kelce as the backup to replace Winchester.
The role isn’t new for Travis Kelce, but it’s sure adding pressure to his already heavy day job, especially considering this could be his final season. He had 76 catches and 851 yards last season, and this year he has 246 yards and two touchdowns through four games. The Chiefs sit at 4-0. Whether Kelce ever fills in the emergency role in a game depends on an injury to Winchester. If that day comes, Toub simply wants his backup to be better prepared.