George Kittle thinks Travis Kelce should make as much as top wide receivers and the numbers show it

Travis Kelce has established himself as the best tight end in football over the last half-decade. Is Kelce the best pass-catcher in the game as well? 

George Kittle, Kelce’s biggest competitor for the league’s top tight end, certainly thinks so. When it comes to Kelce’s production on the field, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has the most receiving yards of any player in the NFL over the past six years. 

“He gets paid half of what a wide receiver makes, which just boggles my mind,” Kittle said over the weekend, via Pro Football Talk. “I mean, to me, Travis Kelce, he’s been doing it for so long and at such a high level. And he doesn’t have an off game. I think he has one bad game a year, and it’s just because he’s getting triple-teamed.”

Kelce has 7,269 receiving yards since the start of the 2016 season, the most of any player in the league. Davante Adams is second with 7,192 yards during that span while Julio Jones is third with 7,129 and DeAndre Hopkins fourth with 7,048.

Kelce is clearly underpaid in terms of production, no matter the position he’s playing. He’s one of 19 players in NFL history with six consecutive seasons of 1,000 receiving yards and the only tight end to accomplish the feat. Kelce is the only tight end in league history with six 1,000-yard seasons — and no other player has five (Rob Gronkowski, Jason Witten, and Tony Gonzalez each have four). 

Going to the Hall of Fame appears to be a formality at this point for Kelce, who is pushing to become the greatest tight end to ever play the game. 

“He’s a player I look at like, when he gets the ball in his hands, he’s a monster,” Kittle said. “When you have six 1,000 yards in a row, you’re a hell of a football player.”