The rumors that Travis Kelce is about to retire have been swirling for a while. Kelce is 36 years old, which sounds very young, but in NFL terms is more or less at the end of someone’s career. And he plays TE, a very physical position. So, if Kelce were to announce his retirement now, no one would be that shocked.
However, Kelce recently signed what is essentially a one-year, $12 million guaranteed deal for the 2026 season. The deal could end up running up to three years, though only one year is guaranteed. And though Kelce could have still chosen to retire to spend some time with his new bride, the Chiefs just made it clear that he’s coming back next season.
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Indeed, the team’s official Instagram account just shared a carousel of photos featuring Kelce in the 2026 Chiefs uniform.
“@killatrav, That’s it. That’s the post,” the team wrote in the caption.
Kelce is one of the game’s top TE’s, so it makes sense that the Chiefs are happy to see him return. In 2025, he caught 76 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns, all despite the fact that QB Patrick Mahomes missed the last few games of the season. He has seven consecutive 1,000-yard receiving seasons and then has followed that with three straight seasons of more than 800 receiving yards.
“He’s still the ageless wonder at the position,” one NFC personnel evaluator told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. “His elite route savvy, body control and instincts allow him to still compete at a high level, despite him getting up in age.”
Just a few days before his wedding, at the annual offseason training summit for Tight End University at Vanderbilt University’s FirstBank Stadium, Kelce was asked about returning for another season. “Oh, I don’t want to cuss in front of everybody, but I love this s–t,” Kelce responded.
Kelce has been making headlines as an elite TE for years, but in the last few years he’s been making headlines for another reason: his relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift. The two started dating in 2023, got engaged in 2025, and tied the knot on July 3 at a ceremony in Madison Square Garden that was attended by over one thousand guests, including much of the Kansas City Chiefs roster.
It is not known whether Kelce and Swift will take a few days to honeymoon or if they’ll postpone that until after Kelce’s season is over. Chiefs QBs and rookies are set to report to training camp on Friday, July 24. All other players must report on Wednesday, July 29. That doesn’t leave them much time to really enjoy a honeymoon, but it’s not nothing either.
The couple was last seen attending the wedding of Kelce’s friend JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Laura Kruk on July 10, 2026, in Laguna Beach, California. They could now be on their honeymoon, for all we know. What we do know is that Kelce will be back to practice with the Chiefs at the end of July, and then it’s another season of football. This time, though, he’ll have his wife rooting for him on the stands.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source stylecaster.com ’
