The numbers just don’t add up for Jason Kelce to return to the NFL.
While the former Eagles center has spent plenty of time around his former team since his retirement this offseason, Kelce has lost too much weight to be a viable starter.
Kelce has slimmed from his playing weight of 295 pounds to 275 with the goal of hitting 260 pounds, he told the Associated Press.
“They’re not going to call me to come back and play center at 260 pounds, and I’m moving on to the next thing and I’m excited to watch Cam (Jurgens),” Kelce told the outlet. “I really think Cam is going to be tremendous this year. He’s going to really show people how great of a player he is. He was good for us last year at right guard and he’s going to flourish at center.
“And for me personally, my days of playing are just done and I do not foresee any scenario taking place other than maybe medicine inventing a way to get rid of arthritis that I would ever entertain coming back at all anymore.”
Kelce still played at a high-level last season and perhaps could have continued to play for at least one more season, but the 36-year-old had been dealing with injuries and worried about whether he could still perform at the level he expected of himself. He didn’t want to go out as a lesser player.
With those concerns on his mind, Kelce hung up the boots in March after 13 seasons that will likely land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Kelce is now officially moving into the media space, joining ESPN for “Monday Night Football” coverage and other duties, in addition to his previous “New Heights” podcast duties with brother Travis Kelce.
Although he’s retired, Kelce has remained within arm’s length of his former team.
Eagles kicker Jake Elliott said in May that Kelce had been in the team’s complex “almost every day,” and the AP reported Kelce has “spent plenty of time around his former teammates at the Eagles’ practice facility throughout the offseason and training camp.”
“He just won’t go home, man,” Eagles left guard Landon Dickerson told CBSnews.com. “I’m kidding. It’s great to have him around. He’s obviously loved around this building by every single person. He’s always welcome out here with Kylie and his kids.”
All that time around his ex-teammates isn’t giving Kelce any doubts about his decision, though, even if his career ended with the Eagles losing six of their last seven games, including a wild-card thumping by the Buccaneers in what proved to be his final NFL game.
“First of all, whenever you lose that many games in a row, it’s never just one person or one area,” Kelce told the Associated Press. “It sounds pretty bad, but the same as when you’re winning at a high level, when you’re losing at a high level, every area is struggling, players, coaches, talent. I think we had a lot of talent last year but there were pieces that we were missing. I think the cohesion certainly wasn’t there like it was the year before. Obviously, we lost two coordinators, which it didn’t work out with the replacements.”
