Travis Kelce of Kansas City Chiefs looking on.Travis Kelce (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
The Kansas City Chiefs may enter Week 5 with a perfect 4-0 record, but injuries to key players and a slow start from tight end Travis Kelce have raised concerns for the defending champions.

Travis Kelce has just 15 receptions for 158 yards and no touchdowns over Kansas City’s first four games. Before an 89-yard outburst in Week 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers, Kelce only had 69 receiving yards in three games.

But Kelce, who turns 35 on Saturday, isn’t sweating his slow start to the 2024 season whatsoever. The future Hall of Famer had a perfectly blunt message to his critics during the latest episode of the “New Heights” podcast that he co-hosts with older brother Jason Kelce.

“Struggling in terms of stats,” Kelce said. “I was still playing winning football. That’s all that f***ing matters.”

Needless to say, the Chiefs will need vintage Travis Kelce to return, following the alarming number of injuries to skill-positioned players on offense.

Wide receiver Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown is likely out for the entire regular season with a shoulder injury that required surgery. Running back Isiah Pacheco is recovering from a fractured fibula, and star wideout Rashee Rice may be out for the rest of the year after suffering a knee injury in Week 4 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Travis Kelce’s Chiefs will try and improve to 5-0 on the season when they play host to Derek Carr and the New Orleans Saints on “Monday Night Football” next week.

Too Soon To Worry About Travis Kelce

Fans will recall that the three-time Super Bowl champion also got off to a slow start last year before returning to his elite form as the season progressed. Kelce was unstoppable in the Chiefs’ Super Bowl 58 run, notching 32 receptions for 355 yards and three touchdowns.

Keep in mind that Patrick Mahomes was also getting the ball out a lot to the likes of Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy early in the season, too. With Rice out indefinitely, Mahomes will surely lean more on Kelce going forward.

Whoopi Goldberg Had Brash Two-Word Message For Chiefs Fans Blaming Taylor Swift For Travis Kelce’s Poor Start To The Season

Photos of Whoopi Goldberg, Taylor Swift, and Travis KelceWhoopi Goldberg, Taylor Swift, and Travis Kelce (Photos via Getty Images)
Whoopi Goldberg had a message for Kansas City Chiefs fans who blame Taylor Swift for Travis Kelce’s struggles this season.

The Chiefs are 3-0 to start the campaign despite a limited contribution from the star tight end, who has made just eight catches for 69 yards across three appearances. Swift, his girlfriend, is somehow being credited for the slump, with the claims growing louder after he appeared distraught on the sideline during her absence at his most recent game.

“Every show I watch, every pregame show, halftime show, postgame show, weekday show, every broadcast I watch for the last few weeks, it’s like are we not allowed to say that he’s out of shape, that he’s been partying all offseason?” ESPN’s Todd McShay opined this week. “He’s been jet-setting around with the most famous person probably in the entire world, that he’s drinking, going to the U.S. Open.” 

Goldberg addressed Kelce’s slow start during ‘The View’ on Tuesday and wasn’t having the Taylor Swift theory, telling the Chiefs fans blaming the pop star to “shut up.”

“They apparently forgot that they won a Super Bowl last year with [Kelce], and [he and Swift] were just as tight then as they are now,” she pointed out (H/T the New York Post). “Grow up, y’all. Stop putting this on her. Your team is fine, your team is doing well. Shut up.” 

Travis Kelce Is Blaming Himself

Meanwhile, Travis Kelce is taking responsibility for his lack of production to date.

“I put that on me,” he said on his ‘New Heights’ podcast. “If you want to catch the football, it has to be the right play, it has to be the right coverage, and it has to be everybody doing their job up front and on the back end in terms of running their routes.” 

Kelce also got off to a slow start last season but still played a key role in KC’s run to the Super Bowl, and there’s lots of time for him to turn things around.

In any case, the team is winning games while he struggles to sort himself out, with Patrick Mahomes connecting regularly with his new favorite target, Rashee Rice.

The second-year wide receiver has made 24 receptions for 228 yards and two touchdowns so far this season.

The Chiefs will face the Los Angeles Chargers in their next outing and will look to improve their early record to 4-0 when they meet on Sunday.