The final chapter of the 2025 season ended with a grim 14-12 defeat for the Kansas City Chiefs at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders. As they now head to an early offseason for the first time in ages, one of the biggest questions lingering over Arrowhead is the future of star tight end Travis Kelce. And he has finally given a hint towards what his future holds.

“I’ve talked to a few people in the facility already, having the exit meetings and everything,” Kelce said on the latest edition of the New Heights podcast. “I think if my body can heal up and rest up, and I can feel confident that I can go out there and give it another 18-21 week run, I think I would do it in a heartbeat. So, I think right now it’s just finding that answer and seeing how the body feels after this game and kind of when it all settles down.”

The 36-year-old tight end isn’t ready to hang up his cleats just yet. But the wear and tear of 13 NFL seasons has him contemplating what comes next. Kelce spoke candidly about the physical toll of football, describing it as feeling like, “a mangy animal that just is fu***** out there, just finding a way to survive”. But for him, that grind is part of the appeal.

Despite the challenging campaign, Travis Kelce reached a historic milestone in what could be his final NFL game. He became just the third tight end in league history to surpass 13,000 career receiving yards. He now joins Tony Gonzalez (15,127 yards) and Jason Witten (13,046 yards) in the elite club.

But there’s another side to this. In this 2025 season, Kelce has posted 76 receptions for 851 yards and five touchdowns. These numbers represent a sharp decline from his prime years, when he eclipsed 1,000 yards for seven years straight. Now, at 36 years old, maintaining the elite level has become increasingly difficult. And this season’s struggles all stand as proof of that decline.

The Chiefs finished their 2025 campaign 6-11, marking their first playoff absence since 2014. They also ended their season with a historic 6-game losing streak. But statistics and standings weren’t the toughest pill to swallow for Kelce.

Travis Kelce’s heartbreak: watching his quarterback fall

The biggest blow for Travis Kelce was watching franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes get injured. Mahomes blew out his ACL and LCL during the Chiefs’ 16-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 15. It was a devastating blow that ended Kansas City’s decade of NFL dominance. Mahomes underwent successful surgery in Dallas and immediately began his rehab.

“It was a tough season,” Kelce admitted on the podcast. “Obviously, ended even worse because my 1-5 went down.”

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The injury marked the first time in Mahomes’ nine-year career that he failed to reach the playoffs. Even more significantly, the 2025 postseason is now the first since 1998 without Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or Patrick Mahomes raising the stakes. That’s a staggering 27-year streak that finally ended, and it took the Chiefs’ season along with it. And Travis Kelce is already looking back to pinpoint the cause of their disaster.

“You try and look back on it right away,” he continued. “You try and learn from it and maybe even try to figure out where it all went wrong and how you could have been better in certain situations. And it’s just a sh**** feeling and a sh**** way to try and navigate one of things you love to do the most, and that’s play football.”

What stings even more is that the injuries didn’t start or stop with Mahomes. Backup quarterback Gardner Minshew suffered a significant knee injury against the Tennessee Titans in Week 16, landing on the IR just when he had the limelight. Xavier Worthy, the Chiefs’ speedy second-year receiver, dealt with a dislocated shoulder right from Week 1 and then missed the regular season finale with an illness to cap it off.

Now, as Kelce weighs his future, one thing is certain: his decision won’t come lightly. He’s meeting with Chiefs officials and allowing his body time to recover before making the call that could end one of the greatest tight end careers in NFL history. A gold jacket awaits him in the future for sure, but is running it back for 2026 in the cards?