Chiefs Predicted to Add 6-Foot-7 ‘Monster’ as Travis Kelce Replacement

A new prediction published Thursday identifies exactly who that replacement will be, and calls the Chiefs’ prospective new tight end a “monster” with “freakish movement ability.”

Trey’Dez Green, the 6-foot-7 LSU tight end, lands with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2027 mock drafts composed after the trade deadline. The Chiefs did not trade for a tight end who could eventually serve as Travis Kelce’s long-awaited successor. In the new predictions, Green would be exactly that.

With Kelce pushing 40 and playing on a one-year, $12 million contract, the projections revive a question Kansas City has put off for years. Who catches passes from Patrick Mahomes next?

Two new first-round forecasts this week gave the same answer. Both sent Green to the Chiefs at No. 24 overall.

“Trey’Dez Green is a monster, a huge target for any quarterback,” Cody Williams wrote in his post-trade deadline mock draft for FanSided. Williams also credited Green with rare mobility and reliable hands for a player his size, and he cited Kelce’s retirement deliberations as the reason Kansas City needs a replacement.

SparkScouting made the identical pick, labeling Green “one of the most physically imposing receiving threats in college football” in its first 2027 mock draft. The site compared him to Jimmy Graham, citing his catch radius and basketball background while noting that his route running and blocking remain unfinished.

“Travis Kelce is an annual rental at this point,” Luke Easterling wrote in June when he predicted Green going to Kansas City at No. 25 for Athlon Sports. Tarringo Basile-Vaughan of NFL Mocks repeated the pairing on Nov. 14, placing Green with the Chiefs again at the No. 24 draft position.

Green grew up in Jackson, Louisiana, and played at Zachary High School, where he averaged 27 points and 11 rebounds as a junior on the basketball court. He signed with LSU as the top-ranked tight end in the 2024 class, then spent part of his freshman winter on the Tigers’ basketball roster.

The football numbers followed. Green caught seven touchdown passes as a sophomore in 2025, a single-season record for an LSU tight end, and his 11 career scores entering this season set the program mark at the position. The school’s official bio opens by calling him “arguably the most gifted athlete in college football.”

His junior year has been interrupted. Green hurt his knee in a Week 3 loss at Ole Miss and missed multiple games before his return, according to On3. He has 29 catches for 357 yards and two touchdowns this season.

Not every analyst sends him to Kansas City. Todd McShay assigned Green a 93 grade and projected him to Tampa Bay at No. 14 in his September mock for The Ringer, writing that “his receiving upside is tantalizing” while flagging his blocking strength. Mike Renner of CBS Sports wrote that Green “looks like an NBA small forward” and sent him to Baltimore at No. 14. Renner gave the Chiefs a different tight end, Oregon’s Jamari Johnson, at No. 24.

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Kelce has not said this season is his last. The Chiefs went 6-11 in 2025 and missed the playoffs, and he weighed retirement before announcing his return in March.

“I want to keep playing until the wheels fall off, I always say,” Kelce told ESPN’s Chris Berman in September, as quoted by ABC News.

That interview aired before Kelce’s first regular-season game since marrying Swift over the summer. His production has dipped from its peak, with 76 catches for 851 yards in 2025, and his options away from the field keep multiplying.

“It sounds like he wants to do television,” Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman said on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast, as quoted by Gridiron Heroics. Sports media reporter Andrew Marchand estimated that a top broadcasting job would pay Kelce $10 million to $20 million a year.

Kelce also co-hosts the “New Heights” podcast with his brother, Jason, and has discussed acting and business investments as part of his life after football.

No announcement has come. Until one does, the Chiefs hold a projected late first-round pick, and Green keeps showing up as the prediction for their choice.

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Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin