Travis Kelce a Giant mentor to current Big Blue tight ends
Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce is stopped by Philadelphia Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba during the first half of an NFL game on Sept. 14 in Kansas City, Mo. Credit: AP/Charlie Riedel
Taylor Swift wasn’t at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night, but her football-playing fiance certainly was.
Travis Kelce was undoubtedly the most decorated and distinguished tight end on the field. Kansas City’s future Hall of Famer came into the game two touchdowns shy of becoming just the fourth player at his position to catch 100 touchdowns for the regular and postseason combined. Now in his 13th NFL season — amid speculation that it could also be his last — his production has slowed a bit but he has made up for any diminishing mid-30s athleticism with craftiness and cunning.
“Kelce’s s been the best at it for a long time, just finding ways to uncover,” Giants defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said this week.
Kelce’s statistics, honors and awards, and starring roles in Super Bowls made him a star long before he ever met Swift, his Billboard-topping betrothed who skyrocketed him into a completely different stratosphere of fame and renown.
But while his legacy as a player on the field is wrapping up, his impact on the Giants — yes, the Giants! — may just be starting and it could last well beyond his eventual final snap.
Kelce has become something of a mentor to several of the Giants’ young tight ends who have attended the Tight End University summer workouts that he, George Kittle of the 49ers and broadcaster Greg Olsen, who played for the Panthers, began hosting in 2021. So while Kelce was going up against the Giants on Sunday night, just a few months ago in Nashville he was teaching, encouraging and even sharing trade secrets with a few of the Giants’ players he and Kansas City faced in the game.
"I got some pretty cool compliments from Kelce just out of the blue, which was pretty cool," Giants rookie tight end Thomas Fidone said in a TV interview during the preseason. “He told me I was extremely athletic and moved extremely well. He told me that my top of routes were really good. He didn't say it like that, but he said it, so just being able to hear that from him was cool. I thought it was awesome being able to just connect and make connections with all the guys around there."
Fidone attended the event along with Giants tight ends Daniel Bellinger, Theo Johnson and veteran Chris Manhertz.
It wasn’t just Kelce who did the lecturing. This was very much an event of open discussion among players at various levels of their careers. In the coming weeks, the Giants will be facing a number of the “professors” they learned from during the symposium, including Kittle with the 49ers in Week 9 and even former Giant Evan Engram. who is now with the Broncos, in Week 7.
“I thought it was a great experience, getting around guys I’ve only kind of watched on film and tape and stuff and kind of seeing them in person, having a hands-on approach to it,” Johnson said. “I thought it was a really cool experience. In college, every tight end pretty much wants to be there, so it was a pretty cool experience. I got a ton out of it. Looking forward to going again next year.”
Johnson, a second-year player the Giants hope continues to expand his role in the offense after an injury-marred rookie season, said he picked up plenty of tips.
“I wouldn't say it's stuff I didn't entirely know, but it was just seeing how Kittle brings the physicality in the run game and also in the pass game, top of the route stuff, using his body really well, having that body control,” Johnson said. “I think that's something I took out of his speeches, especially in the classroom stuff. I learned a lot from Evan Engram, how he moves and stuff, how smooth and fluid his movements are. I learned a ton from both of those guys and many others as well.”
The Giants have a long history of impact tight ends, a tradition that goes back to Mark Bavaro and continued with Jeremy Shockey, Kevin Boss and even Engram. Lately, though, the position hasn’t flourished as much as it did in those past seasons. The four tight ends on the Giants' active roster have a combined six career touchdown catches — Manhertz (3), Bellinger (2), Johnson (1). This current crop of players is very aware of the cleats they are being asked to fill and they are keen on following their productive predecessors.
“They set the standard of what a tight end is,” Bellinger said. “A lot of it is gritty, hand in the dirt, getting it out of the mud, gritty tight end stuff. And the new NFL, I guess, for tight ends is a little bit different nowadays. But at the same time, we have to bring that style to the New York Giants, to New York, and show them that we are a gritty tight end group, but we can also make plays, big plays, too, in the pass game.”
Kelce played that way too. He still does.
He is known these days just as much for other things and other relationships than the one he has forged for most of the past decade with Patrick Mahomes, but for the Giants tight ends, he is still the top star in his family.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
