ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — During the dog days of one of the NFL’s toughest training camps, Travis Kelce might have embodied the perfect barometer of the Kansas City Chiefs’ mindset.
And why not him? The star tight end was the life of the party – “Viva, Las Vegas!” he screamed – during the postgame celebration in the aftermath of Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium. With the back-to-back crowns secured, Kelce roared about chasing a three-peat, igniting hype.
Fast-forward to August. The Chiefs, who will host the Baltimore Ravens and hang another championship banner at Arrowhead Stadium when the NFL kicks off its 105th season on Thursday night, have been knee-deep in the grunt work needed to try becoming the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls.
And Kelce, while undoubtedly burning inside for the possibility, has reeled himself in significantly.
“I don’t even think about three-peats,” Kelce told USA TODAY Sports after a typically grueling camp practice. “I think about making this team ready for the Baltimore Ravens, baby.”
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He smiled, refusing to go much deeper before being whisked away on a golf cart.
“You don’t get there by thinking about it,” Kelce said.
After the Chiefs, led by iconic quarterback Patrick Mahomes, stung the San Francisco 49ers in an overtime thriller in February, Kelce maintained, “The goal has always been to get three.” Yet such boisterous declarations are now apparently filed away for later use.
Andy Reid, the venerable coach, understands. Despite a turbulent offseason that included a deadly shooting at the championship celebration; a high-speed crash involving starting receiver Rashee Rice; and intense backlash aimed at controversial kicker Harrison Butker, his team remains equipped to make another legitimate championship run.
“That’s what’s real,” Reid said of the three-peat chase during an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “It’s out there. But guys know you don’t stand a chance unless you take it day by day. You’ve got the Ravens the first game, and that’s real. And so on, as you go forward. That’s where our focus is at. And going through the process here (in camp), which isn’t easy.
“The old saying, ‘You’ve got to pay the fiddler to get the music’? That’s what you have to do here.”
While the Chiefs may be best-served with the one-game-at-a-time approach, the entire season will be judged within the context of history. They are the ninth team to win back-to-back Super Bowls – and first since the New England Patriots in 2005 – and most of the others haven’t come close to a three–peat.
The best chance yet at such history: the 1990 San Francisco 49ers. After compiling an NFL-best 14-2 regular season record, the 49ers lost the NFC title game, 15-13, to the New York Giants on their own Candlestick Park turf. Although Joe Montana was knocked out of the game by a vicious Leonard Marshall hit, the 49ers still had the chance for a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter. But a Roger Craig fumble, recovered by Lawrence Taylor, doused the 49ers’ hope for a three-peat.
This still sickens Jerry Rice, the Hall of Fame receiver and Super Bowl 23 MVP for the 49ers.
“I was just thinking about it the other day,” Rice told USA TODAY Sports in early August. “Roger didn’t normally put the ball on the ground. It was just not meant to be.”
Rice can relate to the Chiefs’ plight, with the prospect of a three-peat potentially taking on a life of its own. In San Francisco’s case, the grind began in the immediate aftermath of a blowout win against the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 24.
“For some reason, someone said something about three-peating, on the sideline, after we won the game against the Broncos,” Rice said. “Then it became a situation where there was a pressure put on for getting it done.”
Can the Chiefs do it? Count Rice in the camp of believers.
“I think they can because they actually weren’t the best team last year,” Rice said. “But because of Patrick Mahomes – he’s like Montana, who would just will his players to win – as long as he’s on the field, they have a legitimate chance.”
Of course, so much can happen during the NFL’s marathon season, the landscape altered by factors such as injuries, momentum and rising stars. Better clues will come later. Yet the Chiefs (with 11 of their 16 newcomers for the original 53-man roster coming on offense) will likely have a better chance than past contenders to win a third straight crown.
After all, pillars such as Mahomes, Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones remain intact.
The biggest change comes with the receivers. While Rashee Rice’s status is in limbo as he faces eight felony charges and a likely NFL suspension at some point, the Chiefs were already in the process of overhauling the receiver room when the crash occurred. Before the team used a first-round pick to select Xavier Worthy (who notched the fastest 40-yard dash ever recorded at the combine), veteran Marquise “Hollywood” Brown was signed as a free agent to bolster visions of re-establishing a lethal deep passing game. Although Brown will miss the opener as he heals from a sternoclavicular dislocation suffered in the preseason opener, he’s expected to return in the coming weeks. And Worthy had an inspiring summer, impressing Reid with his crisp route-running.
“We’ve got the speed,” Mahomes told USA TODAY Sports. “And more than speed, we’ve got the guysthat can go up and track the ball and make the plays at the high point of the catch. That’s something we wanted to get back to, not only for us to have that threat and hit people deep, but it also opens up the guys underneath.”
No, the Chiefs didn’t look like the best team in the NFL for much of the 2023 season. Although they possessed the game’s best quarterback, the defense carried the Chiefs for much of the season. And the offense sputtered, undone by too many dropped passes and other miscues. Mahomes passed for 4,183 yards, but that was nearly 1,100 yards fewer than in 2022. And his 14 interceptions marked a career high. Kelce, meanwhile, didn’t dominate as he had in previous years. Mahomes game-managed with a short passing game while the deep attack begged for the reconfiguration that is occurring.
Still, even with the woes, the Chiefs won the AFC West title for the eighth consecutive season with an 11-6 record and played their best down the stretch. In finally hitting the road in the playoffs for the first time since Mahomes became the starter in 2018, they won at Buffalo and at Baltimore in the AFC championship game. Mahomes, for one, realized they had something to draw on while ultimately earning a fourth Super Bowl berth (and third ring) in five seasons. Call it championship resilience.
“There were some times last year when the adversity had really gotten to us,” Mahomes said. “The guys put their heads down and kept trying to work, tried to continue with the process. I think knowing that we had used that process before and had success, it kept us in the mentality that even if we weren’t doing it that day, it was going to happen in the end.”
Now there’s this. Mahomes sees no shame in extracting fuel from the prospect of making history. The Chiefs will already be challenged enough due to their pedigree, which typically brings out the best in opponents eager to measure themselves against the champs.
If there’s added pressure for chasing a three-peat, Mahomes seemingly senses that as a good thing. Especially if what the prospect of what might happen in February helped in getting through the dog days of camp.
“It keeps you motivated,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. You could relax with the success that we’ve had. But wanting to do something that’s never been done before in the Super Bowl era, it just gives you that mindset of giving everything you have.
“It’s a long goal ahead, and you have to start it step by step, day by day. But it gives you something to go for every time you can to practice.”
As important as he is to the program, Kelce wasn’t the only measure of the Chiefs mindset during training camp. Jones, the premier D-tackle, came to camp embracing the idea of chasing history – and leaving footprints.
“When a lot of players retire, they always say they want to leave the game better than when they started,” he said. “And if we can get this three-peat and just continue adding to the legacy of the Kansas City Chiefs, that’ll be a huge accomplishment not only for us, but for the NFL.”
Or just the stuff from which dynasties are made.
