Brett Veach: We basically knew Travis Kelce would return a day after our last game

When Travis Kelce signed a new contract with the Chiefs in early March, it put an end to league-wide speculation about whether he’d return for a 14th season.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic a moment for the Chiefs, however. During an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show this week, Chiefs General Manager Brett Veach discussed the timeline for Kelce’s decision and revealed that it was made a lot earlier than anyone outside the organization would have guessed.

“We played our last game of the season in Vegas last year, and when we got back we have player meetings and exit interviews,” Veach said. “It was a cool deal where Trav came in and he basically said ‘I’m going to take a few weeks off here, but I’m not going out like this, let’s stay in touch and let’s figure something out. . . . We certainly knew ahead of time. While free agency and there was still some questions in the air on whether or not he’d return, we knew basically the day after our last game. He made it known to coach Reid and to me that there was no way he was going out like this.”

Veach said he wasn’t going to speculate about whether this will be Kelce’s “last dance,” but said he thought being there as quarterback Patrick Mahomes rehabs from a torn ACL is important to Kelce and that the duo is motivated to make sure that last season is a blip in an otherwise wildly successful run in Kansas City.