Travis Kelce has had a nightmare start to the 2024 season, with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end struggling to make an impact during the opening three games

Travis Kelce’s lackluster early season has raised eyebrows, and critics advise the star to refocus on the gridiron.

The Kansas City Chiefs tight end, who recently turned 34, showed signs of decline, gaining under 70 yards in his first three 2024 games. Despite coming off a remarkable 2023 season, scoring victories on both personal and team levels with a Super Bowl win under his belt, the start of the season hasn’t been kind to Kelce.

He has appeared slower and less dynamic, struggling to evade tackles and manifesting frustration. Kelce’s high-profile romance with Taylor Swift has kept him in the spotlight, but some speculate that this, alongside other off-field activities, may be distracting him from his football passion.

Rodney Harrison, NFL pundit, and past Super Bowl champion, weighed in with advice for Kelce: “He’s busy, he’s got a lot on his plate. You think about it, he’s doing a lot of different things media-wise, he’s playing football, he’s got other things going on. It’s a lot of stuff going on. But when you’re in that situation, you got to focus on everything else, and you got to focus 100% on football and that’s the main responsibility.

“Guys making plays on him, you see Jessie Bates did a heck of a job on him tonight. He just doesn’t have the same speed. He’s a good player still. I don’t believe he’s a great, great player.”

On the airwaves, New York radio legend Mike Francesa opined: “As an organization and as a coach, you would have to question how dedicated Kelce is to the sport right now. He has a lot going on in his life. His life has taken a radical change.

“You see him in commercials, you see him in photo ops, you see him now very conscious of how he’s dressed… and where the paparazzi are and everything else. It changed his life. And you wonder, where does football and where does football preparation enter into that?

“Clearly at this stage of his career, you wonder where he is in his dedication, in his preparation, because his performance has fallen off dramatically. And it’s not just, ‘Oh the Chiefs are going away from Kelce.’ It’s more than that.”

Meanwhile, reinforcing his tight end’s changing role, quarterback Patrick Mahomes attested that Kelce’s lesser engagement might be due to defenses anticipating and attempting to curb his impact.

While tactical shifts can partially explain things, observers have remarked that Kelce no longer exhibits his former sharpness in executing turns and cuts, speculating he seems slower. This shift appears while teammate Rashee Rice emerges, running tangential routes and increasingly taking the slot receiver position.