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    • Chiefs star’s disappearance isn’t what it seems
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    Chiefs star’s disappearance isn’t what it seems

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    ATLANTA – It’s become a thing with the Kansas City Chiefs: where is Taylor Swift?

    The NFL can’t get enough of the buzz surrounding the global icon and her legion of Swifties, set against the backdrop of her romantic connection to one of the best tight ends in NFL history. The cameo shots of Swift watching her beau from a private box, bonding with Brittany Mahomes and wildly cheering on big plays are, well, adorable.

    Yet, football purists have recently been asking another pertinent question when it comes to back-to-back Super Bowl champions: What happened to Travis Kelce?

    Relax, everyone. Even with Kelce averaging a goal during the Chiefs’ 3-0 start, this is hardly a critical emergency that threatens the chances of a three-peat — at least not yet.

    Sure, if you’re a fantasy football owner with Kelce on your team, you might be panicking. Through three games, Kelce has recorded eight catches for 69 yards. He’s still looking for his first touchdown of the season.

    During Kansas City’s narrow 22-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night, Kelce was the target of five passes from running buddy Patrick Mahomes, catching four passes for 30 yards. That’s certainly not the stat sheet production we’ve come to expect from Kelce, 34, who averaged 100 catches and 52 touchdowns over the past six seasons.

    On a critical third-and-2 early in the fourth quarter Sunday night, Mahomes threw the ball to the middle of No. 87 and Jessie Bates III, one of the NFL’s best playmaking safeties, ripped the ball from Kelce’s clutches. Incomplete.

    But there is no reason to panic.

    “I’m just living my dream, bro,” Kelce said when approached in the locker room after the game.

    Then came a hulking Chiefs security guard, who executed a seal block that would have been a textbook power sweep but in this case allowed for a violation of the NFL’s long-standing—but poorly enforced—media policy that requires players to be available for comment after games. The guard cleared a path for Kelce to slip out the door without interfering with the nail-biting victory. Because Kelce’s profile has reached new heights (pun intended) with his connection to Swift, he has routinely dodged questions after the game.

    What a shame. Kelce, a 12th year pro, has been good at calling out insights for so long, podcast or not.

    Anyway, Mahomes explained it in Football 101 terms. What’s up with Kelce?

    “It’s crazy,” Mahomes said. “Teams… the level of respect they have for Travis is unreal. It’s well-deserved.”

    “We call a lot of plays for Travis. It’s like two or three people go to him. He gets it. That’s the great thing about him. He wants to impact the game. He wants to win at the end of the day.”

    While Kelce’s statistical impact has not been appreciated by some fantasy team owners, his presence in the game remains very real. Kelce played 54-of-74 offensive snaps on Sunday night (77%), a rate only surpassed by Mahomes and the five starting offensive linemen’s 100% completion rate. And while many may measure his effectiveness in terms of passing game stats, Kelce’s immense value comes from his ability as a complete tight end who can be a tough blocker in the running game.

    Hey, the catches will come. Remember last season, when Kelce missed the opener, then had 17 catches in his first three games and didn’t score a touchdown in his final six regular-season games? Then, in the playoffs, he had four monster games—including an 11-catch, 116-yard outing in the AFC title game in Baltimore that featured a killer TD catch—that were essential to the Chiefs’ quest for repeat championships.

    So you wait. The Chiefs’ passing game has been sparked by the emergence of sophomore receiver Rashee Rice (who had his second 100-yard dash of the season on Sunday night and has posted TDs in the past two games), while first-round pick Xavier Worthy has shown flashes of promise. Still, Kelce’s breakout offense is still a major threat.

    “I’m going to do my best to keep getting him the ball when he’s out there, but I think the more Rashee plays, the more we can run the ball, the more we can get Worthy involved, it’s going to open up Travis more,” Mahomes said. “People are really stressing about getting him out, and it opens up other guys.”

    It appears the Chiefs, who continue to win while trying to find their feet, have the kind of “problem” with Kelce’s limited stat production that most teams would beg to differ.

    And even the Swifties could do something with that.

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