The Kansas City Chiefs will enter the 2025 campaign with renewed motivation. After two straight Super Bowl victories, one couldn’t be blamed for thinking the Chiefs were sleepwalking into the Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles provided a resounding wakeup call, however, kneecapping Kansas City’s bid for a three-peat and making the Chiefs look as mortal as they’ve ever felt with Patrick Mahomes.

Andy Reid, for his part, is resetting expectations in the locker room. After years of Super Bowl-winning malaise, he wants to the Chiefs to practice harder than the competition — to start acting like the underdogs, rather than the presumptive favorites. The Eagles are, after all, tied with Kansas City in the 2026 Super Bowl odds right now. It’s been a minute since the Chiefs weren’t the runaway favorites preseason.

Andy Reid sends a message to the Chiefs

Chiefs rookie Xavier Worthy outlined Reid’s mandate to Kansas City’s offense ahead of training camp.

“Coach [Andy] Reid told us during OTAs, Phase I, ‘When you come back, get your hamstrings ready,’” Worthy said on Up & Adams (h/t Yahoo Sports). “So, he kind of knew that we were going to be going a little deep in practice, so we kind of got our bodies and our minds ready [for] what we were going to be doing in practice.”

That message is aimed at the whole offense, but one can’t help but think of Travis Kelce, the star tight end who has openly mulled retirement for a couple years now — and whose performance appears to be on the decline.

Andy Reid’s message should be heard loudly by Travis Kelce

Kelce’s production reached an all-time low in 2024. He put up 97 receptions for 823 yards and three touchdowns in 16 games. That is still sensational by tight end standards, but it’s the worst output of Kelce’s career (barring a rookie season in which he barely played). He’s still a sharp route-runner with unique physical gifts, but Kelce has lost a step. That connection with Patrick Mahomes, which once felt so beyond anything else in football, has regressed to something mortal. He’s still Mahomes’ favorite target, but Kelce cannot deliver the same results week to week. He was especially rough in the postseason.

Now 35 years old, Kelce has been at the center of retirement rumors for a while. They were especially prevalent this past offseason. It’s easy to think that, had Kansas City won out and completed the three-peat, Kelce might’ve hung up his cleats. Go out on top. Since the Chiefs have unfinished business, however, Kelce is motivated to get back on the field and re-raise his own standards.

For what it’s worth, it sure seems like he is taking Reid’s message to heart.

“I think the biggest thing is that I f***ing love playing the game of football,” he said, per Yahoo Sports. “I love playing. I still feel like I can play it at a high level and possibly at a higher level than I did last year. I don’t think it was my best outing. I think I let my guys down in a lot more moments than I helped them, especially if you look at my track record and how I’ve been in years past. I want to give it a good run. I got a bad taste in my mouth in how I ended last year and how well I was playing and how accountable I was to the people around me.”

It remains to be seen if Kelce can physically deliver the results he so clearly desires, but if there’s any tight end capable of a late-career resurgence on the back end of their 30s, it’s Kelce. The Chiefs’ WR room should be much improved this season, which could free up Kelce a bit and allow Mahomes to feed his favorite target a more steady diet of passes.

Only time will tell, but it sounds like Reid and Kelce are on the same page with training camp on the horizon.