Travis Kelce “grateful” for new deal, happy to raise bar for tight ends

Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones held out of training camp and missed the first game of last season in a bid for a long-term contract that finally paid off earlier this year, but tight end Travis Kelce didn’t have to jump through any of those hoops.

Kelce said on his New Heights podcast that his agents went to the Chiefs to talk about revising his current deal, but said he is “not a guy that holds out” so there was no threat that he’d withhold his services if the team wasn’t interested. The Chiefs responded to the request by bumping Kelce’s salary to $34.25 million, which gives Kelce the highest average annual salary among all tight ends.

Kelce said he’s “extremely grateful” to the Chiefs for coming through with that offer and that he’s happy that his deal will raise the salary bar for other tight ends.

“I’m so excited and so thankful to this organization for getting it done, making me feel appreciated and compensated the right way and on top of that I got to move the needle for the tight end room,” Kelce said. “It’s everyone else’s job to keep making that tight end AAV go up and up with every single contract that’s better than mine in the future.”

Kelce said that he’ll see what the future holds beyond the 2025 season at some point down the line, so there’s a chance that this won’t be his last chance to sign a contract that benefits him, the Chiefs and tight ends at large.