Greg Cosell's Film Review: Travis Kelce having Gronk-like impact for Chiefs offense

The Kansas City Chiefs still appear to be figuring out all the ways they can use tight end Travis Kelce. It doesn’t seem like they’ve found anything he can’t do.

With Rob Gronkowski out for the season, Kelce currently has the title of best receiving tight end in the NFL. Kelce and Gronkowski are much different players physically – Kelce is more naturally athletic, while Gronkowski is bigger and more imposing physically – but they both are nightmares for defenses. And their teams know how to create problems for opponents through their versatility.

One similar way Kelce and Gronkowski impact defenses is they’re able to detach from the formation and play out wide. It’s very hard to match up against them on the perimeter.

Kelce has a wide array of skills, and I want to take an in-depth look into some of them. You’ll be seeing these things on display in the postseason, and on Sunday when the Chiefs try to keep their AFC West championship hopes alive by beating the San Diego Chargers.

Formation versatility

When Kelce splits out wide, you’ll see most teams cover him with a safety, or perhaps cornerback if they’re in zone coverage. When you have a tight end who can split wide like Kelce, it limits a defense’s options. If they play a cornerback out wide with Kelce, the cornerback will have a size disadvantage and then what does the defense do about covering receivers like Tyreek Hill and Jeremy Maclin?

The Chiefs often use two- and three-tight end sets. That usually causes defensive coordinators to keep their base defense on the field. But then the Chiefs break the huddle, spread it out and Kelce is split wide against that base defense. And he can win against safeties or cornerbacks. He’s really tough to cover when he’s isolated on the outside. That’s why you’ll see the Chiefs run a lot of 3×1 sets, with three receivers to one side and Kelce to the other.

What strikes me about these next two plays is they’re two different routes and Kelce won both against athletic safeties. On the first one, Kelce ran a quick slant against New York Jets safety Calvin Pryor and took a short pass for 42 yards.

On this play, Kelce beats Atlanta Falcons safety Keanu Neal on a fade route. You can see from these two examples that he’s tough to prepare against. You can’t plan to take one thing away from him.

And if teams stick cornerbacks out on Kelce, he can beat them too. On the first play of this Week 9 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, with Kelce as the “X iso” receiver, he beat cornerback Prince Amukamara on a sluggo (slant-and-go) concept. That went for 23 yards.

Route running

We can see from the above plays that Kelce can run many routes well. This play in particular showed how much confidence the Chiefs have in Kelce’s route-running ability.

This came against the Indianapolis Colts. From a three-tight end set, the concept was designed to get Kelce running a route against cornerback Vontae Davis. Think about that: The Chiefs’ plan inside the red zone was to get their tight end running a route against a two-time Pro Bowl cornerback. And Kelce ran a great route, getting inside of Davis for the touchdown. A subtle move to the outside caused Davis to take a false step and opened up the middle for Kelce.

Kelce is a tremendous route runner. What I think stands out about this part of his game is his spatial awareness. He just has a tremendous feel for where to be and how to get open.

Athleticism

You can see Kelce’s athletic ability in most of the plays above, but last week’s 80-yard touchdown against the Denver Broncos really stands out.

Most teams don’t run a tunnel screen for their tight end. On this play, Kelce got great blocks by the right guard and tackle. But he also did a tremendous job working through the defense and then exploding into the open field.

This is what sets him apart from most other tight ends. He moves with tremendous fluidity. That’s how he’s able to beat defensive backs in space and create big plays.

Blocking

Kelce is not a great blocker, but he’s not deficient either. That’s important. The Chiefs don’t need to treat their tight end like a wide receiver. They can maintain their formation versatility with Kelce because defenses know if Kelce is blocking on the line, he is far from a liability.

Against the Broncos, Kelce had two great blocks on touchdown runs. On Alex Smith’s 10-yard score in the first quarter, Kelce had a nice block on safety Justin Simmons. He was one-on-one with Simmons in space and Smith probably doesn’t get into the end zone without Kelce walling off Simmons.

On the Chiefs’ second possession, they ran a counter strong with the right guard and Kelce as lead blockers. Hill took the run outside and Kelce had an outstanding block on safety Darian Stewart, knocking him to the ground and clearing a lane for Hill.

You can see that the Chiefs use Kelce in a number of ways, and he can do just about anything they ask of him. Kelce is one of the most important players going into this year’s playoffs. We’ve seen Gronkowski have a huge impact on the postseason before. We’ll get a chance to see if Kelce can do the same.

– – – – – – –

NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.