Travis Kelce is one of the greatest tight ends of all time, but according to Patrick Mahomes, there's one aspect he's better at: being a teammate.

While talking to Yahoo Sports Daily, Mahomes was asked what he felt made Kelce special. The QB promptly responded with:

"Obviously, he has the physical gifts to go out there and be that size with that speed and looseness and catch the football. But I think what makes him who he is, the leader and the person that he is. Teammates around him want him to succeed because he’s gonna give everything he has for the guys around him."

Kelce's resumé speaks for itself. His 13,000 passing yards and 82 touchdowns are plenty, but where Kelce really excels is as a teammate. Fans saw this back in 2024.

At the time, Mahomes had been sacked over 30 times. That's when Kelce played as a blocker, giving Mahomes plenty of space in the pocket. Even though it meant his yardage would be lower than 800 yards, Kelce wanted to help the team, as Andy Reid had mentioned at the time. But that's not all.

The likes of Charcandrick West, Leo Chenal, and Alex Smith have spoken about how Kelce pumped them up before a game. And there's a reason for the same, as Kelce had told Martin Rogers of FOX Sports.

It all goes back to his days in college at Cincinnati. At the time, Kelce was plagued by highs and lows during his college football career. That's when his head coach Butch Jones gave him some advice. As Kelce explained:

"When you see a group of football players and they are high energy and they're having fun and they're enjoying what they do, that's a way different beast from the ones that have got their heads hanging and kind of just going through the motions."

That's what Mahomes emphasized as well. "I think that’s something that makes him special is that, every teammate you ask about him is gonna say that’s their favorite teammate because of the person that he is. I think that’s what makes him the gold jacket recipient that he will be."

Mahomes doesn't say that lightly. In fact, he even shared a story that showed how close they became within months of meeting each other.

How Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce became friends

During the New Heights podcast with the Kelce brothers, Mahomes revealed he became friends with Travis when he and a few rookies went out and ran into Travis Kelce.

When Mahomes was late to the next day's walkthrough with Andy Reid, he was joined by Kelce. Travis had turned up just minutes before Mahomes did.

As Kelce explained, "At that point, I knew we were teammates. I knew that guy was going to win a Super Bowl with me." Since then, the two have become best friends on the Kansas squad, even vacationing together.

They will come together for one more season, after months of speculation around Kelce's potential retirement, and make an attempt for another Super Bowl run.

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Written by

Siddharth Shirwadkar

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar