UNBREAKABLE: Why Travis Kelce Will NOT LEAVE the Chiefs – Free Agency Moves and Rumors EXPLODE

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Sounds like Travis Kelsey's returning in Trimic Duffy got paid.

Today I locked on chiefs.

On the land of the three and the home of the chiefs, this is the Lockdown Chief Podcast.

And welcome back to the episode of Lockdown Chiefs, part of Lockdown Podcast Network.

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And I'm Chris Clark from Chiefs Corner.

He is ranked race for men of all 33, RGR football and rogue analytics.

And we talked a little bit about this in the mock draft.

So be sure you went and checked that out.

And to be quite frank, that mock draft might mean nothing by the time the year listening

to this or by the time the free agency kicks off.

But here we are.

We're going to talk about Trimmig Duffy getting paid a little bit later, but we're going

to start with Travis Kelsey.

And it sounds like he is likely to return though.

I think there's a twist that is interesting nonetheless as it is being reported.

I think there's no twist.

That's all BS.

This is not a thing.

I just want everybody to calm down and feel okay about it.

Travis Kelsey will never play for another team.

I hope I didn't just jinx it like I did with his first contract extension, but I just

literally cannot see that ever happening.

Do you want to open the door?

Sure.

Do you want to say, Hey, what would you baby?

I'm I'm free agent right now.

And I think that's the basis of coming back to DeVijan Andy and be like, this is what

apart.

Yeah, it seems like this is probably a negotiation tactic, but it's interesting that

it's happening and on the eve of free agency.

It does sound like and it has kind of sound like for the last week that everybody is expecting

to Travis Kelsey will be back.

That would be great for Kansas City.

I think he showed last year that 2024 was a off year for him, but he looked like he was

actually better in 2025 than he was in 2024.

So I have no worry about them giving him something type of deal.

The interesting thing on this is going to be what do they give him contract wise and

how long do they make it?

Is it going to be a two year deal?

Is it going to be a three year deal?

Because if it's a three year deal, then you have a little bit more room to kind of make

some maybe some void years in there, or even longer, we'll see what he ends up signing,

but there's been some tight end contract moves as well.

I think that's an interesting point and you do have a point to the markets changing.

I also feel like if Travis comes back in shape, so take it easy on the wedding cake,

it's all I'm saying.

Like if he comes back in shape like you did last year, there's no reason that he can't

play another season that is still productive.

But I wonder if in the building, this possibility shifts what we just did in our mock draft.

Does it put the impetus on, hey, we have a high series of picks now.

Do we go invest in a guy that we feel is available to become the next Travis Kelsey so that they

can have a year of overlap so that Travis can teach him that kind of thing.

Like do they make tight end more of a priority in the draft because they are likely to have

that Travis Kelsey back for one more swan song?

Yeah, and I kind of mentioned this on the mock draft show, and I'm going to mention it

here because I still think it applies and I don't really think it's going to apply to

the Turmeric Duffy thing, which is obviously, can't say it was never going to do that deal,

but we're getting that after in just a minute.

But the reality is, is that you still have moves that you can make with this roster.

And the salary cap is what's going to determine what they're going to pay Travis Kelsey

one and what you're going to do to get under the salary cap.

I mean, you're under it right now as it is.

So you don't have to make any moves.

But the thing that I pointed out on the other show was the fact that if you're going to make

an adjustment for Chris Jones, or you're going to make an adjustment for Trace Smith,

or you're going to make an adjustment for Creed Humphrey, all those guys have base salaries

that are in excess of $14 or $15 million a year.

You can make adjustments at any time.

You don't have to do something before so.

So to me, I do think that that kind of plays into how all this is going to play out.

And I also think that at this point, since tranquil hasn't been released, he probably will

not be released.

So that's something to watch.

The only thing that kind of plays into this for the chiefs is Chris Jones has a roster

bonus of $16 million due March 13th, I believe.

So that is something to watch.

If they're going to make a move with Jones, it doesn't have to be, it can be after the

newly gear starts.

So that actually helps them as well.

It gives them the ability to move stuff around if they need to or want to.

So something to watch there.

Yeah.

I think that could be very, very interesting and it all comes back to what is your priority

right now?

And we will find that out very quickly because folks by the time you see your lunch on Monday,

the deals will start come streaming in because legal tampering means we're announcing what

we've already tampered with.

Yeah.

And it's going to be interesting because there's been people that have been, you know, saying

the chiefs are going to get kids walker.

People are saying that they're interesting and it's in who knows which direction they're

going.

But the other deal that I want to throw out there really quick that I thought was interesting

that kind of has an effect on what the chiefs will do.

Khalil Matt getting 18 million a year guaranteed really kind of makes me wonder if the chief

s feel like they can do something that the defense of imposition in free agency.

And I think we're going to have a longer discussion about that tomorrow folks.

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And when we get back, we're going to talk about Trimic Duffy getting the bag right

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game time today.

Trent McDuffy got the bag.

He absolutely got paid.

There is no way the chiefs were ever going to pay Trent McDuffy the money that he just

got paid from the Rams.

They gave him a four year contract, $31 million a year and $100 million guaranteed $100

million guaranteed.

That's crazy talk and don't get me wrong.

You guys know how excited I was when they got Trent McDuffy.

He was in the minimum quarter of his glass.

He comes from Washington.

He's back with Jimmy Lake, like all the good things.

But Pastor Tam makes $24 million a year when he wanted to know how to play a guy.

He went and watched Trent McDuffy film.

So now Trent is making quite a bit more than him, more than Jaylen Ramsey, more than

JC Horn, more than Derek Stingley, and more than Saus Gardner, top of the league.

The chiefs just did the same thing with Creed Humphrey, very close with Trace Smith.

They literally could not afford to do it with a quarterback making $31 million a year.

Yeah.

There's no way the chiefs were ever making this deal.

Period.

And I said this.

I've said this for the past couple of months.

If Trent wanted more than $25 million a year, he wasn't getting into Kansas City.

And...

Somebody else paid him.

More power to him.

Yeah.

I'm not saying he's not a great corner.

He's a great corner.

I'm not paying him $31 million a year.

The Rams want to do it.

Congratulations.

Good luck.

Hope he can stay healthy and hope he has a fantastic career unless he's playing the chiefs.

But there's no way the chiefs were paying this deal.

No.

I agree.

They literally could not.

It would have been just too insurmountable.

And I think in the end, Trent always had his eye on going back home to LA at some point.

It might as well be now when they have the money to burn and the willingness to burn it on him.

And I don't mean to say burn is though it's a waste because it's not.

He is that good.

And I do expect the money will change absolutely zero about the way Trent McDuffie plays the game.

So I think they actually get the value out of it.

It's going to be interesting.

$31 million a year for a corner.

Your past restrooms are getting close to 45 now.

So I mean, the corner is still a premium position.

It's, you know, wide receivers a premium position getting paid almost the same money as the corners are at this point.

You're just in a situation where in the cap keeps going up.

So that played into how much more McDuffie got than, you know, then Sawis Gardner got.

So that does play into things.

But what does this do to another market in like Jalen Watson?

Like that's my question.

How does this affect Jalen Watson and what he's going to expect in free agency?

Can the city I'm sure was wanting to bring him back?

Can you pay him $20 million?

Because I'm guessing he's going to be getting close to that in free agency.

I don't know, man.

Trent McDuffie and Jalen Watson are two very different stratospheres.

Oh, that's true.

But we're not talking a huge deal.

So, I mean, $20 million a year is a huge deal.

Well, it is.

But when you look at what the market is for corners, considering your, that would be, let's see,

Sir Tann is at 24 even and Ramsey's at 24.1.

So you're seeing within four million of the number four, a number five paid guy at the position.

That seems a little rich for me.

Can he get 16?

Yes, I think he can, can the cheese afford that?

I don't think so.

I think they're going to afford 12.

I think they're going to afford 13 maybe if they really felt like it.

But to be clear, 20 million is getting him top 10 money, basically.

I'm not saying he's the top 10 corner, but if he fit, if he hits free agency,

he's going to get paid more than he probably deserves and would not shock me if somebody's

going to pay him like a top 10 corner.

And I will say the same thing.

I'm saying to Trent McDuffie, thank you for your time in Kansas City.

I am glad that you got paid, enjoy the rest of your career's day healthy,

and be able to be physically capable to enjoy that money.

Yeah, except for just don't do anything when you play Patrick Mahomes.

So there you go, take the day off.

Take the day off.

Yeah, you've seen some stuff that Mahomes can do.

Just know that he's probably going to do it to you.

It'll be on the football field as opposed to in practice.

Yeah, a little bit more visibility is going to be fine.

So that's going to be a first day.

Let us know what you think.

Let us know what you think about the Kelsey situation.

Is he going to look at other teams?

Is he going to talk to other teams?

Or is he just going to end up in Kansas City?

And this is a negotiation tactic, which is what I believe it really is.

And let's know what you think about Trent McDuffie's deal.

31 million a year, 100 million guaranteed.

A lot of money for a corner.

He is fantastic, but Kansas City wasn't paying him that.

That's going to be a first.

That's going to be it for us today.

We will have you covered with free agency.

It should be kicking off here in a couple of hours.

And we will have you covered for that.

So be sure to be on the lookout for that while I'm coming up on Wednesday as well.

And cannot wait for agency is finally here.

The doldrums of the off season is pretty much already over at this point,

because it's it's all speed ahead for for agency in the draft until the draft is over.

Yeah, it certainly is.

And we got you covered everywhere at Rogue APC as well as here,

as well as your football, like we're going to have it 360.

We got you.

Thank you all for listening today and we will talk to you tomorrow.

What's up everybody?

This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown podcast network.

And if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love for you to join.

It's called the every day or club and one of the things that you get as a member

is an ad-free version of the podcast that you're listening to right now.

It works with whatever podcast app you already use, same episodes every day, just no ad.

There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team, plus a lot more.

You can check it out by tapping the every day or club link in the show notes.