PHILADELPHIA — Jason Kelce remains noncommittal regarding his future in the NFL, but could be leaning toward one final season. Speaking with The Philadelphia Inquirer after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship on Sunday, Kelce opened up about his future in the NFL.
“As a Philadelphia Eagle, incredibly disappointing season, especially at the end of it,” Kelce said. “And I really, really look forward to next year. I look forward to trying to prove people wrong, especially with some of the recent hires and Nick Sirianni. And there’s a lot of things up in the air for the Philadelphia Eagles. But I think that, as a player, you always look forward to go into battle with your guys.”
Kelce hasn’t announced a decision on his future or not, but he appears to be coming around toward potentially another year in the NFL. Whatever Kelce decides to do, he wants to remain part of the organization.
Kelce shut down any questions about his future when all the cameras were in front of him a few weeks back on locker clean out day, but the Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro center did answer at least one question on his future when the horse of reporters left. Kelce didn’t made a decision yet.
“I don’t even know what involves my future, whether it’s playing football or not. I have no idea,” Kelce said as he held his cup of coffee. “It’s um, yeah, we’ll figure it out. I don’t want to address any of that stuff.
“I think it’s, um, I don’t like to live in absolutes in general, so I guess it could be.”
Whatever Kelce decides to return for a 14th season with the Eagles or not, he’s not thinking about that at the moment. Brother Travis Kelce is going to Super Bowl LVIII with the Kansas City Chiefs, and there’s a good chance Jason will be sitting in a box with mother Donna and Taylor Swift — as he’s done this postseason.
Jason has even thought of attending the Pro Bowl, which likely wasn’t on his to-do list given the Eagles’ 10-1 start to the season. He’s not even sure what they do at the Pro Bowl anymore. Philadelphia appeared primed to make another deep playoff run before losing six of its last seven in one of the greatest collapses in NFL history.
The collapse still lingers throughout Kelce’s mind. How could it not?
“I don’t think we really got it done those last six weeks,” Kelce said. “There were different struggles in each of those games. I know it might appear one thing might fix one game — but it might not fix the other.
“Overall, when you get an entire offseason you get a much bigger perspective. You get to go into your own self tendencies more. You get to really dive into a lot of structural things. You get to reassess players and things. You get to really think much, much harder. Search for answers with the more time that you get.
“It’s hard to make those shifts a lot of times in season. It can be done, we didn’t get it done. I feel confident those shifts can be made.”
In the meantime, Kelce will continue to contemplate his future. And in due time, he’ll make a decision what he plans to do in 2024.
There’s plenty to think about, especially when there’s a brand Kelce built. How much further can he take that brand as it keep growing, whether he plays football or not?
“I’ll always wanna be involved in the game,” an emotional Kelce said. “It’s a hard thing to step away from, completely I’m imagining. I still want — there’s a lot of things I still want to learn about football. I still want to figure out what we can do to figure out what happened these last six, seven weeks.
“There’s still plenty to learn. I’d love to learn route trees and different concepts. This is why this protection is called this, why this guy is bending this way. I know a lot about my little pocket of football, but I’d love to know more aout the collective whole.
“That’s something I’d love to get a better grasp on in the future.”
