The Kansas City Chiefs’ nightmare season officially ended Sunday with a 14–12 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, a fittingly grim conclusion to a year that unraveled week by week. The defeat marked Kansas City’s sixth straight loss, dropping the franchise to 6–11 and locking in its lowest win total since Travis Kelce entered the league in 2013. It also sent the Chiefs home without a playoff berth for the first time since 2014, underscoring just how far a perennial contender fell in one season.
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The end of the dynasty has officially been declared, and while the Chiefs will have the 10th overall pick in the NFL Draft to look forward to, that’s nothing more than a wooden spoon for a franchise that hasn’t missed the playoffs since 2014. Mahomes and Andy Reid both figure to return, meaning that the actual loss resides with Kelce, who has likely played his last down of football.
On the field, Kelce’s Week 18 stat line reflected both his age (36) and the state of the offense (terrible). He caught three passes for just 12 yards against the Raiders, continuing a late-season trend in which production was hard to come by. He failed to top 15 receiving yards in three of his final five games and, since Mahomes’ injury, managed only nine catches for 54 yards without a touchdown.
Kelce himself has yet to confirm or deny his own retirement rumors, and when he was confronted about them, he simply noted that he would “go through meetings tomorrow, get close to the family, and figure things out.”
When it was his turn to speak with the press, Reid offered even less clarity on the subject, stating that they “…really haven’t gone through” any sort of discussions about the future with Kelce at this time, and that the plan is to just “see where it all goes from here.”
Yet even in a lost season, Kelce found ways to make history. Those three receptions were enough to make him the fastest tight end in NFL history to reach 13,000 career receiving yards. He joined Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten as the only tight ends ever to reach that mark. Kelce also surpassed 75 receptions on the season, matching Tim Brown’s NFL record for the most consecutive seasons with at least 75 catches. In another first, he became the only tight end in league history to record 12 seasons with at least 800 receiving yards.
Despite the Chiefs’ struggles, Kelce remained the team’s most productive pass catcher. He led Kansas City in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns, finishing the 2025 season with 76 catches for 851 yards and five scores across 17 games. On a roster ravaged by injuries and inconsistency, he was still the offensive focal point.
Kelce’s broader résumé leaves little doubt about his place in NFL history. Over 13 seasons, all with Kansas City, he compiled 1,080 receptions for 13,002 yards and 82 receiving touchdowns, plus two rushing scores. He posted seven 1,000-yard seasons, more than any tight end ever, earned four first-team All-Pro selections, and was named to 11 Pro Bowls. He ranks third all-time among tight ends in both receptions and receiving yards and fifth in touchdowns.
Most importantly, he was a cornerstone of three Super Bowl championship teams in 2019, 2022, and 2023, and his impact was recognized with a spot on the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team.
For the Chiefs, the offseason now arrives with uncomfortable questions. How quickly can Mahomes return to full strength? How much of this season was bad luck versus real roster erosion? And looming over everything is Kelce’s future. If Sunday was indeed his final game, it marked the end of one of the greatest careers ever by a tight end—and the closing chapter of an era in Kansas City.
