2022 Fantasy Upside
Travis Kelce has been one of the most dominant tight ends in the history of fantasy football. Since 2016, Kelce has finished as TE1, TE2, TE1, TE1, TE1 and TE2. He’s had six consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 receiving yards with an average of 1,211.5. He’ll continue to be a featured part of this offense this season, especially after the departure of Tyreek Hill. In fact, it’s highly likely he ends up leading the Chiefs in targets, a team that’s had the 4th-most pass attempts in the league since Patrick Mahomes took over in 2018.
2022 Fantasy Downside
While Kelce was still dominant last season, he did see a significant dropoff in production. He had fewer receptions per game (7.0 to 5.8), receiving yards per game (94.4 to 70.3) and scored fewer touchdowns while playing one less game. Kelce also turns 33 this season, which is when we start to see tight ends drop off in production. The Chiefs also added some additional weapons this offseason like JuJu Smith-Schuster and rookie Skyy Moore who could eat into Kelce’s underneath work.
2022 Bottom Line
While Kelce’s production did dip last year, that speaks more to how dominant his 2020 season was rather than anything else. Kelce should be in line for another 1,000-yard season this year. We’re projecting him to finish with lower numbers than he did a year ago, but it’s not like he’s going to vanish. Kelce should still be viewed as one of the most elite options at tight end heading into 2022. He’ll be in the conversation to finish as TE1 for yet another year.