Leading up to the NFL Draft and in the weeks that follow, where players get picked is a main topic of conversation. It can lead to some heartbreaking moments for promising prospects taken later than they had hoped.
However, where someone is drafted is far from the only indication of the impact the player can make in the league.
It’s not always the top picks who turn into stars, and time and time again we have seen late draft picks and undrafted players become the faces of the NFL. Super Bowl champions Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Jason Kelce, Philadelphia Eagles legend, are two players who know this story far too well, as later round picks-turned-stars themselves.
They sat down on their “New Heights” podcast to discuss their perspective on the draft, explaining that while falling further than a player feels they deserved can be disappointing at first, it’s an experience that can be used as fuel.
Travis was a third round pick in 2013, taken No. 63 overall, and there were concerns surrounding him as he entered his rookie year. He was suspended during his sophomore year at the University of Cincinnati after he failed a drug test over marijuana use. Jason believes that if it weren’t for some off-the-field situations, his younger brother would’ve been drafted earlier.
“The funny thing about Trav is that there was nothing outside of the injuries — I guess you had two things,” Jason, a sixth-round pick in 2011, said. “You had a few injuries, and then you obviously had the marijuana thing stemming from your sophomore year.”
Jason believes Travis would’ve been a second-round pick without the extra noise.
“You probably got drafted an entire round later than you should have. I just think it’s funny sometimes, looking back and there are all these concerns about Travis Kelce, and everybody — whoever knew you — knew you were a great kid. You just had a mess up with weed. Sorry. And then all of a sudden, teams aren’t picking you for it.”
Travis has said in the past that the suspension ended up bringing a positive change for his football career: the shift to his current position. He had played quarterback, and while the team said he could come back to the team, it would be in a different role.
“It was like, ‘Alright, you can come walk-on the team, but we don’t need a quarterback,” Kelce recalled. “You can just be an athlete on scout team for a year, we’ll figure it out.'”
Travis went on to be one of the biggest stars in the league and arguably the best tight end in NFL history, with 10 Pro Bowl selections, four first-team All-Pro selections and three Super Bowl titles.
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The 2025 NFL Draft saw one of the more surprising slides the event has seen, when Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round. It certainly is not where the quarterback was expecting or wanting to go, but for players like Sanders, Jason jokes they have the chance for a major “I told you so moment.”
“I just want everybody that drops in the draft for whatever character concerns, if it ever pans out, they should just do that exact same character concern,” Jason said. “You should have just walked into signing your second deal with a blunt in your hand, smoking it as a sign of the paper.”
Jason was a lifelong Eagle and retired at the end of the 2023 season as a Super Bowl champion. Travis is entering his 13th season in the NFL, all spent with the Chiefs.
The two faced each other in Super Bowl LVIII, with Travis being on the winning side. Travis battled the Eagles again in the Super Bowl to conclude the 2024 season, this time with his brother in the stands and the Eagles hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
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