Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes passionately defend Travis Kelce amid criticism for slow start

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes won't stand for any of the negativity directed towards Travis Kelce.

The tight end has gotten out to a slower start this season, totaling only eight receptions for 69 total yards and no touchdowns across the Chiefs' three games. 

And because of that, many have criticized Travis, saying that he should retire or that he is distracted due to all of his offseason activities. But that's not the case at all. 

Reid made sure to put an end to all of that. 

"I know people are saying that he's old or that he has distractions, but defenses don't think that," the head coach said. "Trav is fine. He just keeps being Trav. He works his tail off. He hasn't lost a step. He's not distracted. (Some of these defenses) are making sure he's taken care of.

"The thing the NFL has right now is some really good tight ends that just aren't blockers that can match up against safeties and nickels, in this league. Our safeties and nickels work on that like crazy, those are big bodies that are usually bigger than you are," Reid added.

Everyone knows how dangerous Travis is, especially when he's paired up with Mahomes. So it makes sense why opposing teams want to make sure that the tight end is covered at every moment. 

But what people aren't taking into account is who is open when all the attention is on Travis. So while his impact isn't showing up on the stats sheet, he is contributing to each and every win. 

"In all honesty, he's always been this guy. He wants to make an impact on the game and make plays, but he wants to win at the end of the day," Mahomes explained. "If we're winning, he's good with going out, blocking, and impacting the game any way he can. . ."

Travis also spoke out publicly on all this during the most recent episode of his New Heights podcast. 

"Whatever it is. It's football, baby. I'm not getting caught up in getting the targets and all that," Travis said. "I just want to have a successful offense, and I think Pat's doing a great job of finding the open guy and making the right decisions right now. And we just have to keep finding -- it's a new offense, new players, new pieces, and we're just finding how to have success throughout the season. As an offense, you're going to go through these ups and downs throughout the season, and you just want to make sure that you clean up all the mistakes that you're you're making, make sure that you're communicating so that everybody understands exactly where we're going moving forward. And nobody does it better than Coach (Andy) Reid and Pat Mahomes." 

"I've had a lot of catches in this league, man," Travis added. "I'm not worried about, you know, the catches and the yards and all of that. I have the most fun when I get the ball thrown my way. Who doesn't? I mean, it has everything to do with execution, just making sure we're doing whatever we can to win these football games, man. And that's always going to be the goal."

So what's his message to all the haters?

"As long as we're winning football games, we're good to go, baby," Travis said. "We're 3-0, man, it doesn't get any better than a 3-0 start."