Why ‘Playoff Travis’ Kelce has been best version of Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end

Travis Kelce’s amazing NFL playoff career started with his first postseason appearance..

In 2015, the Chiefs traveled to Houston to play the Texans in an AFC Wild Card round game. Alex Smith was the quarterback that afternoon for Kansas City, and the first snap resulted in an 8-yard completion to Kelce.

The final tally for Kelce that day: eight receptions for 128 yards, including an 48-yard catch. He was the Chiefs’ best offensive player in a 30-0 victory — the team’s first playoff triumph in 22 years.

The production hasn’t stopped for Kelce, who will extend a Chiefs postseason longevity record he shares with long-snapper James Winchester when KC opens its latest playoff run in the Divisional Round: Both Kelce and Winchester will be appearing in their 23rd playoff game.

Kelce will also have the opportunity to add to his record-book supremacy.

He is the NFL’s all-team leader in playoff receptions, with 165, and shares with Jerry Rice the record for most 100-yard receiving games in the postseason: eight. His 19 playoff touchdowns are just three behind Rice’s record.

If the Chiefs reach a third straight Super Bowl, Kelce will take aim at more records. With 31 Super Bowl receptions, for instance, he’s just two catches behind Rice in that department.

Kelce, in his 12th NFL season, was his usually reliable self as the Chiefs reached the playoffs for the 10th straight time this season. He’s been named to the Pro Bowl each of those years.

His 97 receptions this season ranked third among all tight ends. His 823 receiving yards led the Chiefs. But that total was the lowest of his career, and so were his 341 yards after the catch and 6.4-yard average depth of target.

That’s a reflection of the Chiefs’ evolving offense, the emergence of Noah Gray as KC’s next-best receiving threat at tight end ... and Kelce’s age.

At 35, he’s the NFL’s oldest regular tight end. But a year earlier, after falling below 1,000 receiving yards for a season for the first time since 2015, Kelce found another gear in the playoffs.

In four games, he recorded 32 receptions in 37 targets, including the most perfect effort of his career — 11 catches on 11 targets from Patrick Mahomes — in KC’s AFC Championship Game victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Kelce caught a pair of touchdown passes against the Buffalo Bills in the Wild Card Round and added another against the Ravens, beating All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton.

For his career, Kelce has caught 71.7% of the passes thrown his way during the regular season. In the playoffs, that number has jumped to 81.7. He averages 69.4 receiving yards per game in the regular season. In the playoffs, it’s 86.5.

If he’d never been part of a Super Bowl-winning team, Kelce would still be in the conversation about greatest accomplishments by tight ends in NFL history.

Add his postseason success to the discussion, and he stands at or near the top.