Chiefs’ Travis Kelce becomes fifth tight end to surpass 10,000 receiving yards

Travis Kelce didn’t have his most productive outing of the season in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 34-28 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday — but it will still be a game that he won’t soon forget.

Kelce finished the game with four receptions for 71 yards — a rather ho-hum performance for a player who entered Sunday’s contest averaging over 80 yards per game and is tied for the league lead with 12 receiving touchdowns.

But on a 38-yard reception in the first quarter, Kelce passed two career milestones. First, he exceeded 1,000 receiving yards for the seventh consecutive season — the first tight end to ever do so.

As impressive as that was, the star tight end also accomplished something even more historic: He also surpassed the 10,000 receiving yards in his career, becoming the fifth tight end in NFL history to do so. It took Kelce just 140 games to do so — shattering the previous record of 177 games set by Tony Gonzalez.

But Kelce was more focused on Sunday’s victory.

“Honestly, right now, the win means more than any of those stats,” he told reporters after the game. “Everybody’s been talking about me getting those stats at some point this year, so it was on everybody’s radar.”

Kelce joins an exclusive club of 10,000-yard tight ends that includes Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Antonio Gates and Shannon Sharpe.

“Obviously, all those guys are unbelievable company,” said Kelce. “And I’m very fortunate that I’ve had the coaches and the players around me to be able to have this much success.”

But Kelce isn’t finished achieving career milestones this season. He now has 10,045 yards — meaning that he needs just 16 to surpass Sharpe to rank fourth all-time. That will almost certainly happen during Kansas City’s Week 15 matchup against the Houston Texans.