KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The repetitions come virtually across the NFL, an offseason setting that will stretch through at least the end of May but might never feel normal. The Chiefs are beginning their Super Bowl defense via the same avenue in which businesses across the country are meeting with their employees.
Players receive new play designs through an online video call with their coaches and teammates. They take mental reps without the opportunity to replicate them physically.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been here before. Or at least someplace similar. Twice, actually.
As a rookie, a knee injury prevented Kelce’s on-field inclusion in practice and games. And last summer, he was unable to participate in organized team activities as he rehabbed an ankle injury. But he remained engaged with the process in another manner.
Those mental reps.
“I was still getting the mental snaps of what we were installing — how we were going to run things,” Kelce said Wednesday in a Zoom call. “Knowing Coach (Andy) Reid, he knew I was in those meetings, so he installed plays that really were designed for myself. He installed them in the offseason to give me time to get these mental reps and see how other guys were running them and get a better idea of how I should run them.
“I didn’t get the physical work because I was doing the rehab for my ankle, but mentally I’m always engaged in it.”
Which is why the process today — quarantined at home — is similar, albeit not identical. Kelce can’t see the plays in action. Can’t watch his teammates run them in his place. The visualization must come in his mind. Same as his teammates. On Wednesday, Kelce spoke to reporters while sitting in his shoe closet. As spacious as it was, it’s not quite the same as standing behind a lectern at the Chiefs’ practice facility.
It’s all abnormal, to be sure. But for the sake of the conversation, Kelce did put up 1,229 yards in 97 receptions in 2019 — despite missing OTAs last summer. It’s doable … if the approach is right. Kelce points toward his involvement in meetings and practices, even if the latter didn’t include on-field work.
That attitude can be — must be — replicated virtually, he said.
“Nothing has really changed in terms of the bulk of installs (and) the load of information you’re going to have to be ready for once you do get on the field,” Kelce said. “Yeah, it makes it a little tougher — you don’t get the opportunity to go out and run these plays, especially the new plays that (Reid) and the offensive minds have put together. But it’s gonna be a little difficult to catch up once we get out on the field and actually be able to perform these plays.”
The Chiefs offer one advantage in that realm — a veteran-laden roster that will return all but one starter on each side of the football from last year’s championship team.
“The locker room guys, the core guys, everybody has the mentality of we gotta do this again,” Kelce said. “Last year doesn’t mean a thing. I don’t want to say we’ve erased it because it’s still fresh in our minds, but at the same time, it builds confidence and it builds some competitiveness to be able to repeat.”
