Mahomes has rarely targeted his star tight end in the opening weeks of the 2024/25 NFL season.
Taylor Swift’s fans have accused Patrick Mahomes of ignoring Travis Kelce on the NFL field as their offense’s frustrating start to the season continued for the Kansas City Chiefs against the Atlanta Falcons.
The 22-17 win saw the defense pull their weight once again to help spur the Missouri-based side past Kirk Cousins at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and to a 3-0 record for the campaign, in an all-too-familiar story for the past 12 months.
But worryingly, Kelce is showing zero signs of the tight end that has dominated American Football since 2019. Through three rounds of the season, he has only managed to make eight receptions for 69 yards and zero touchdowns.
At this pace, he’s projected for regular season stats reading a dismal 45 receptions for 387 yards which would mark a decline of 51.7% in the former and 60.7% compared to his 2023 numbers, which was already one his weakest seasons on record.
Yet Swifties, fans of the football player for his relationship with Swift, have rushed to his defense by claiming Mahomes has simply been failing to target him enough which is why he’s struggling, rather than poor performance from the 34-year-old.
One user wrote online, “That is what deliberately ignoring Kelce. Idk. I’m not a football genius but open is open.”
A second added, “Travis was there….easy first down.”
And a third commented, “”It is not the first time of patrick doing this.”
Is Mahomes failing to target Kelce, and why?
To be fair to Kelce, whilst the stats do not paint a particularly pretty picture for the triple Super Bowl champion, there also isn’t a lot he can do about it considering he has been targeted just 12 times by his quarterback.
That means his reception rate is a competitive 66.6% and whilst his average carry distance of 8.6 yards is the lowest of his career, he really is thriving on scraps at the moment too. He’s making 2.6 receptions per game compared to 2023, when he made 5.4 per game.
Meanwhile another Chiefs’ player, Rashee Rice, has had 29 targets in the opening stages of the season and seems to be Mahomes’ new preferred target but why is that the case in Kelce’s age 35 season?
“I mean it’s crazy because teams still… the respect factor they have for Travis is just unreal,” Mahomes told reporters. “It’s well-deserved but we’re calling a lot of plays for Travis and it’s like two or three people are going to him.
“He understands. I think that’s the great thing about him is he wants to make an impact in the game but he wants to win at the end of the day. I’m going to try to do my best to keep feeding him the ball whenever he’s there, whenever he’s open.”
