Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce makes 2026 National Tight Ends Day one to remember after securing a new piece of NFL history
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce added another milestone to his résumé in Week 7 against the Seattle Seahawks. Plus, two receiving legends now sit within his reach.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has officially surpassed a player he has chased throughout his NFL career. He did so on National Tight Ends Day, which seems perfectly fitting.
It took a few quarters, but Kelce made history in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game. With 44 receiving yards in Week 7 against the Seattle Seahawks, Kelce passed Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez for the most receiving yards by a tight end in NFL history, including the postseason. He needed only 35 yards to set the record.
Gonzalez previously held the record with 15,413 combined receiving yards. Kelce now sits ahead of that mark, with 11 regular-season games left and whatever postseason run the Chiefs can muster still to come. Kelce had already surpassed Gonzalez to become the franchise leader in receiving yards and touchdowns. Now, he owns a record that once made Gonzalez the G.O.A.T. at the position.
How Travis Kelce caught Tony Gonzalez
Entering the game, Kelce had 15,379 total receiving yards (13,301 in the regular season and 2,078 in the playoffs). When Gonzalez retired, he had 15,127 regular-season receiving yards and just 286 in the playoffs.
That playoff gap tells much of the story. Kelce has piled up more than 2,000 postseason receiving yards during Kansas City’s deep playoff runs, and that production carried him past Gonzalez on the combined list.
He isn’t simply hanging around to collect milestones, either. Entering Week 7, Kelce led all NFL tight ends with 196 yards after the catch. He continues to stack up numbers uncommon for a 37-year-old tight end, especially one closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
Kelce climbs the all-time receptions list
Kelce also moved up the regular-season record books in catches. Entering Sunday night, he had 1,100 career regular-season receptions, the seventh most in NFL history. After three receptions, he has 1,103 receptions.
Former Minnesota Vikings WR Chris Carter ranks sixth with 1,101 catches. Former Indianapolis Colts WR Marvin Harrison ranks fifth with 1,102. Basically, Kelce needed just three catches to pass both Carter and Harrison and enter the top five all time.
He still has a ways to go to catch Jason Witten, Gonzalez, Larry Fitzgerald, and Jerry Rice in terms of catches. Still, cementing himself among the league’s top five pass catchers is another remarkable feather in his cap.
Travis Kelce keeps building his first-ballot Hall of Fame case
Kelce is a no-doubt Pro Football Hall of Famer. He continues to build a case for first-ballot selection when he hangs up his cleats.
Here’s where Kelce stands right now: Nothing about his play suggests he needs to walk away. At his current pace in his 14th NFL season, he has little reason to call it a career, especially after his Sunday Night Football performance against Seattle.
Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce Career Accolades
A quick look at his résumé shows just how far the third-round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft out of the University of Cincinnati has come since entering the league.
- Three-time Super Bowl champion (Super Bowls LIV, LVII, and LVIII)
- Seven-time All-Pro
- 11-time Pro Bowler
- NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team
Now, no tight end in NFL history has more combined regular-season and postseason receiving yards than Kelce. That number will keep rising as long as he suits up for Kansas City during the 2026 NFL season.
Knowing Kelce, he won’t be satisfied with the record unless the Chiefs can make a fourth-quarter comeback and notch the win in Seattle.
