Chiefs Set Up With $17.3 Million in Cap Relief If Worst-Case Scenario Occurs

Kansas City Chiefs superstar tight end Travis Kelce has popped up on a few sites as a potential cap casualty in 2025.

Now, anyone that knows anything about the Chiefs knows that they would never cut Kelce, no matter how much cap space they could save in doing so. Just to be clear, that is not happening under any circumstance.

Having said that, Bleacher Report writer Alex Ballentine made a good point about Kelce’s contract on January 20.

“Cutting Travis Kelce is obviously a long shot,” Ballentine first acknowledged. “He might be 35 years old with waning production, but he’s still one of the best tight ends in the league [and] his chemistry with Patrick Mahomes has been the driving force behind the Chiefs’ passing game for years now.”

With that in mind, Ballentine noted that the Chiefs “would be able to create $17.3 million in cap space by releasing Kelce,” but quickly added that “this is much more likely to come into play if Kelce decides to retire.”

“The star tight end has wavered on his retirement stance in media appearances,” the Bleacher Report analyst went on. “If he decides to walk away, the Chiefs have structured his contract in a way that’s going to help them with their cap space.”

That last part is important. The NFL cap rules can be very tricky to keep up with, but SB Nation’s Mike Frazer once explained that “the [retirement] math looks pretty much the same as if the player had been cut.”

That means — as Ballentine alluded — that if the worst-case scenario does occur and Kelce decides to call it quits in 2025, the Chiefs have at least set themselves up with $17.3 million in cap relief. A small silver lining for the loss of a legend.

Travis Kelce Admits Retirement Decision ‘Changes Every Single Day’

If the Chiefs were to win their third straight Super Bowl title this winter, it’d be fair to wonder if Kelce would elect to go out on top.

While speaking with “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on January 15, he admitted that his opinion about retiring “changes every single day.”

“I love everything that I’m doing in this building but at the end of the day, I’m not having that extreme success on the field as I have individually,” Kelce explained. “I’m excited for these next couple [of playoff] games, to play up at Arrowhead, to finish this season off. I’ll reevaluate it like I always do, and I’ll probably tell myself how much I love this thing, and I’ll come back next year.”

“It’s something that you have to keep in perspective, man,” the future Hall of Famer continued. “I never want to get to the point where I’m not helping this team win or I’m hurting this team more than I’m helping this team. As long as I’m coming out here, playing good football and enjoying coming into the building every day with my guys, you’ll see me in a Chiefs uniform for sure.”

Kelce has one year left on his most recent contract, which could also set the stage for a 2026 retirement. If he wants to keep playing beyond that, Kansas City would have to work out another short-term extension.

Travis Kelce Passed Tony Gonzalez as Chiefs’ All-Time Receiving Leader but Is Unlikely to Catch Him as Top NFL Tight End Anytime Soon

Kelce has plenty of reasons to retire — whether it’s his blossoming relationship with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, his newfound acting career, his successful podcast or simply his body and overall health.

On the flip side, outside of his love for the game, the main reason not to retire would be his pursuit of ex-Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez for most receiving yards as a tight end in NFL history.

Kelce already passed Gonzalez for the honor of Chiefs’ all-time receiving yards leader, but he currently sits third in the ranks for the position overall. Kelce has 12,151 receiving yards, while Jason Witten accumulated 13,046 and Gonzalez amassed 15,127.

To be blunt, there’s simply no way Kelce catches Gonzalez by the end of 2025 or even 2026. So, if that’s an important goal of his, he’d likely have to keep playing well into his late-30s in order to reach the magic number 15,128.