The Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cincinnati Bengals did not have much of an answer for Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in last month's AFC playoffs. San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle believes that if the Philadelphia Eagles fail to slow down Kelce in Super Bowl 57, then the Chiefs will cruise to their third Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.
“My take is this, if the Eagles don’t take Travis Kelce out of the game, they’re going to lose,” Kittle said during a recent appearance on ‘PFT Live.' “Straight up. Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes are the best tandem in football.
“There’s nothing like them. … If you let [Kelce] take over the game, they don’t stand a chance.”
Kittle also offered some advice to Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon over what should be Philadelphia’s game plan for Kelce.
“As a defensive coordinator, what I hope they do, they should double-team him, put a guy at the line of scrimmage, chip him every single play,” Kittle said. “That's what Bill Belichick does with the Patriots.
“Whenever I watch Chiefs tape and I see the Patriots, they have two to three guys on him on every second of every play. And they're like, anyone else has to beat us.”
No tight end has had much success against the reigning NFC champions in this year’s postseason. Daniel Bellinger hauled in a mere one catch for four receiving yards in the New York Giants‘ NFC divisional round loss to the Eagles, while Kittle logged 32 such yards in last month’s NFC title game.
Gannon is well aware that his defense will be in for a monumental challenge against Kelce in Super Bowl 57.
“We have to have a plan for what they like to do,” Gannon said ahead of Super Bowl 57. “Everything is coming with him. He's a first-, second-, third-level guy. He's got run-after-catch abilities. He's explosive. He's got ball skills. He's got a huge catch radius and he's very intelligent. … We've got to do a good job on him.”
Kelce has recorded 15 receiving touchdowns in 19 total games played so far this season, including the playoffs.
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