Travis Kelce teammate fires back at ESPN analyst and ex-NFL GM after retirement decision made for him

Chris Jones has made it very clear where he stands on Travis Kelce.

Throughout the course of the 2025 NFL regular season, much of the discourse surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs was about whether the 36-year-old was playing in his final season in the league.

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After a disappointing 2024 campaign by his own high standards, Kelce’s 2025 run saw very little improvement, finishing the year with 851 receiving yards for five touchdowns from just 76 receptions – his fewest since 2015.

Nonetheless, he was still named to his 11th consecutive Pro Bowl.

Amid all the speculation retirement, former New York Jets general manager and Miami Dolphins executive vice president of football operations, Mike Tannenbaum suggested on SportsCenter that the Chiefs should move on from one of the all-time greats.

“I would move on from Travis Kelce and let me tell you why,” Tannenbaum said on Wednesday.

“When you’re in the front office, you have to project what a player is going to do, not what they’ve done.

“I’ve made that mistake countless times in my career and Travis Kelce is a first ballot Hall of Famer.

“But when you watch him and make an honest and sober evaluation of his 2025 performance, clearly his best days are behind him.

“We talk about their [Chiefs] lack of explosive plays. If I was Kansas City, I would make the right, albeit difficult, decision to move on from Travis Kelce and probably get younger, faster, more explosive at the tight end position.”

This clip, as expected, made the rounds on social media and caught the attention of the Chiefs’ star defensive tackle Chris Jones, who had just two words to say to Tannenbaum.

“Shut up…..,” he posted in response on X.

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A six-time All-Pro, Jones has spent a decade with Kelce with the two being instrumental to the Chiefs’ modern-day NFL dynasty – now likely over – in which they have reached the Super Bowl in six of the last seven seasons, winning three rings.

The Chiefs’ ownership group, including Clark Hunt, have already vocalized that they would like to see Kelce back for Year 14, but the final decision ultimately lies with the future Hall of Famer, who seemingly has a career in TV waiting for him.

Jones trying to get the band back together?

Jones, who is not afraid to speak his mind on his X account, has also tried to recruit a former teammate of his back to KC.

After the Dolphins announced that they were cutting ties with a disgruntled Tyreek Hill after four seasons on Monday, Jones once again took to X, seemingly in an effort to bring the veteran wide receiver back home to KC.

“@cheetah it’s ,” he wrote on Monday.

Hill spent the first six seasons of his pro football career in Kansas City – named to the Pro Bowl on all six occasions – where he recorded 7,349 scrimmage yards and 62 touchdowns before being traded to Miami.

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He was also a major part of the Chiefs’ 2020 outfit which claimed the organization’s first Super Bowl since 1970, forming huge chemistry with quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Now a free agent, it seems unlikely that the 31-year-old will play much part, if any, of the 2026 NFL season after suffering a gruesome lower leg injury back in Week 4 of last season.

But he has vowed to be back.

“The Cheetah will be back…Born Again,” he wrote at the end of a lengthy Instagram post on Tuesday.

Whether he will reunite with the Chiefs, though, still remains to be seen.

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