Chris Jones calls out former NFL GM who says the Kansas City Chiefs should move on from Travis Kelce
The Chiefs will not be taking the failed GMs advice.
The Kansas City Chiefs are only going to be in more headlines soon. On Wednesday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes restructured his contract to free up cap space, and more moves like this are expected.
The major story, though, is whether tight end Travis Kelce retires, given how polarizing he is. It’s a major storyline that has drawn strong, often unwarranted, opinions. Former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum, now an ESPN analyst, even suggested the Chiefs move on from Kelce no matter what.
“I would move on from Travis Kelce, and let me tell you why,” Tannenbaum recently said on ESPN. “When you’re in the front office, you have to project what a player is going to do, not what they’ve done. I’ve made that mistake countless times in my career.
“Travis Kelce is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but when you watch him and make an honest and sober evaluation of his 2025 performance, clearly, his best days are behind him. We talked about their lack of explosive plays—if I were Kansas City, I would make the right, albeit difficult, decision to move on from Travis Kelce and try to get younger, faster, more explosive at the tight end position.”
Chiefs DT says what needed to be said to Tannenbaum
“Shut up,” Jones wrote on Twitter with a shushing emoji.
In all honesty, Jones is just saying what everyone is thinking. Moving on from Kelce makes little sense. He’s the greatest tight end of all time, and the Chiefs may need to replace wide receivers due to Rashee Rice’s potential off-the-field issues.
Hollywood Brown may not return, and the Chiefs have limited draft picks and money. They need weapons, and Kelce could re-sign for less as a free agent. He still had the league’s third-best season among tight ends.
He’s still got a lot in the tank and had a strong year, even with team struggles. Kelce had 28 more receiving yards and two more touchdowns than the year before. In his final three games of the year with backup QBs, he had just 54 total yards.
Getting him back would be huge. If he retires, the Chiefs know what positions to target—maybe even if he stays. But if he’s ready to play, they won’t move on from him. As Tannenbaum’s analysis underscores, the stakes and decisions ahead are clear.
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