Once the game ended, the rookie approached the 11-year veteran, the two men not wearing the same uniform.
Scott Matlock, the defensive end for the Los Angeles Chargers, wanted to ask Travis Kelce, the superstar tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, a question: Do you have any advice for a rookie? Kelce, a future Hall of Famer, responded by revealing a major component of his success.
“You know what it is?” Kelce said to Matlock. “Understand the other side of the ball just as well as you know your side of the ball. You feel me? Everything is predicated off of what I’m doing and what the defense is doing.”
Kelce had just demonstrated that advice against the Chargers last month, his impressive performance a critical reason why the Chiefs were victorious. One of the Chargers’ priorities against the Chiefs was to limit how many of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ passes Kelce caught. To that end, the Chargers’ secondary played a variety of zone coverages. Still, Kelce finished with a game-high 12 receptions for 179 yards, including a touchdown.
Even though the Chargers at times assigned two defenders to cover Kelce, the tight end was able to thwart such a tactic, doing so to such a degree that it’s understandable why fans, CBS play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and even the Chargers themselves asked a similar version of the same question: How does Kelce consistently get open?
