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Tom Melvin
Tight Ends
Biography
Tom Melvin enters his 13th season as Kansas City's tight ends coach and his 27th season as an NFL coach in 2025.
Tom Melvin enters his 13th season as Kansas City's tight ends coach and his 27th season as an NFL coach in 2025.
Melvin joined the Chiefs in 2013 - the same year Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was drafted in the third round (63rd overall) - making him Kelce's position coach for the entirety of his 13-year career. Entering 2025, Kelce holds a streak of 174 games with a reception, the longest in franchise history and second-longest active streak in the National Football League. In 2024, Kelce passed PFHOF TE Tony Gonzalez (76) for the most touchdown receptions in team annals with 77. His 80 total touchdowns (77 rec., 2 rush, 1 fum.) are also the second most in Chiefs history. Under Melvin's tutelage, Kelce recorded seven-straight seasons of 1,000 receiving yards (2016-22) and was the fastest tight end in NFL history to reach the 6,000 – 12,000 receiving yard plateaus. Since QB Patrick Mahomes took over at QB, the two have had an obvious chemistry that has paid off on the field, connecting 53 times for touchdowns which are the third-most QB-TE TD connections in NFL history. Kelce's been a vital player in the Chiefs nine-straight AFC West Titles, seven-consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances and three Super Bowl wins (LIV, LVII and LVIII). He now also owns back-to-back Super Bowl rings (LVII and LVIII) and appeared in three-straight Super Bowls (LVII, LVIII and LIX). Kelce has also cemented himself as a prolific postseason player, tied for the most postseason game appearances (25) in Chiefs history, second-most points in Chiefs history (120), with 20-career postseason receiving touchdowns, 178 receptions and 2,078 receiving yards – all the most in franchise history. His 178 career postseason receptions are the most in NFL history and his 2,078 postseason receiving yards top all tight ends in league history and are second to only PFHOF WR Jerry Rice. With 20 postseason receiving touchdowns, he is second to only PFHOF WR Jerry Rice (22) for the most all time amongst pass catchers. Since 2015, Kelce has not missed a Pro Bowl nomination, and from 2016-22, he made the All-Pro Team for seven-straight seasons (first-team: '16, '18, '20, '22; second-team: '17, '19, '21). Kelce has been voted by his teammates to be an offensive postseason captain every year since 2017, helping to lead the team to three Super Bowl victories in five years (LIV, LVII and LVIII). Due to injury, Kelce only played in one game in his rookie season (2013) but since his return in 2014 he has been the team's leading receiver each season except 2015 (second to WR Jeremy Maclin) and 2021 (second to WR Tyreek Hill).
In 2024, Melvin had another reliable season with TE Travis Kelce who again led the team with 823 yards and 97 receptions for three touchdowns and earned his 10th Pro Bowl nomination. Melvin helped Kelce make history again as he recorded his 1,000th career reception, the only player in franchise history to reach the mark and the fastest tight end to surpass 1,000 catches. Kelce added on 13 receptions for 175 yards and a touchdown in the postseason. TE Noah Gray had a productive year, the second-leading tight end with 40 receptions for 437 yards and five touchdowns. Gray's year was the best of his career with highs in receptions, yards, and touchdowns.
Melvin had a productive tight end room in 2023 with Kelce leading the charge and bolstered by TE Noah Gray and TE Blake Bell. Kelce had a standout postseason performance with 32 receptions, the most in his postseason career and 355 receiving yards which were the second-most in his postseason career. He added three touchdown receptions to his performance. He had back-to-back 100+ receiving yard games (Weeks 5 and 6) and added a postseason 100+ receiving yard performance in the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore (11 rec., 116 yards). Gray set a then single-season high for himself with 305 receiving yards (28 catches) and two touchdowns.
The 2022 season proved to be another record setting year for Kelce and further development of TEs Noah Gray and Blake Bell. After Kelce recorded 92 yards against Tampa Bay (10/2/2022) he passed former NFL TE Rob Gronkowski for fifth-most receiving yards in league history (tight ends) with 9,328. Following the season, Kelce's 10,344 career receiving yards trailed only TE Tony Gonzalez for the most receiving yards in team history and fourth-most by a TE in league history. Back for his second year, Gray recorded 28 receptions for 299 yards and one touchdown.
In 2021, Melvin coached Kelce to another 1,000-yard season as he recorded 1,125 receiving yards and nine touchdowns en route to his seventh Pro Bowl nomination. With 9,006 career receiving yards, he became just the sixth tight end in NFL history to reach 9,000 career receiving yards and is the quickest tight end to do so.
In 2020, Melvin's coaching helped Kelce set two NFL records in Week 15. Kelce became the first tight end in NFL history with multiple seasons of 100+ receptions in his career (2018 and 2020), while his 1,416 receiving yards were the most-ever by a tight end in NFL history, passing 49ers TE George Kittle's previous record of 1,377 yards set in 2018. His 105 receptions in 2020 set a franchise record and marked the fourth-most single season receptions by a tight end in NFL history.
In 2019, Melvin helped Kelce become the first tight end in NFL history to record back-to-back 1,200+ yard receiving seasons. In the Week 16 game against the Chicago Bears in 2019, Kelce finished the game with 504-career receptions becoming the fastest tight end in NFL history to record 500-career receptions, doing so in just 95 games played.
Under Melvin's tutelage in 2018, Kelce was a key component to Mahomes' breakout season as Mahomes took the starting quarterback role. Mahomes threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns, earning Mahomes NFL MVP.
Melvin has developed well-rounded tight ends including TE Demetrius Harris. Harris entered the league in 2013 as an undrafted free agent, spending the season on the club's practice squad after playing college basketball at UW-Milwaukee. In 2017, he recorded 18 catches for 224 yards and one touchdown.
Prior to joining the Chiefs in 2013, Melvin spent 14 seasons on the offensive coaching staff in Philadelphia, including the last 11 years of his tenure as the Eagles tight ends coach. During his time overseeing the tight ends, Melvin played a key role in the development of Brent Celek, who caught 280 passes for 3,473 yards and 20 touchdowns in his six-years playing for Melvin and the Eagles. He had 684 receiving yards in 2012 after registering 811 yards in 2011 with six touchdowns in those two seasons. Celek turned in one of the finest seasons ever by an Eagles tight end in 2009 with 76 receptions for 971 yards and eight touchdowns. Prior to being elevated to tight ends coach, Melvin was the club's offensive assistant/quality control coach from 1999-01.
Melvin joined the Eagles after an eight-year stint at Occidental College, where he served as the school's offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. In 1993, he led the Tigers to a then-school record 326 points and 2,526 rushing yards on the way to an 8-1 record.
Prior to his time at Occidental, he served as the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach at the University of California—Santa Barbara. At UCSB, Melvin directed the nation's fifth-ranked offense in 1989 while coaching five All-America selections.
From 1982-83, Melvin played on the offensive line at San Francisco State University. During the 1983 season, his position coach at San Francisco State was current Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid.
Following his playing career at SFSU, Melvin began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, serving on the same staff with Reid. He then moved on to Northern Arizona, where he mentored TE Shawn Collins, a first-round draft pick of Atlanta in the 1989 NFL Draft.
Melvin attended Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, Calif. Today, he holds a bachelor's degree in physical education from San Francisco State and a master's degree in educational administration from Northern Arizona.
Melvin's cousin, Bob Melvin, is a former major league catcher and current manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Education: ÂSan Francisco State University (B.A. 1984, M.E. 1987). Born: Redwood City, Calif. Family: Wife - Kathy; Children - Justin, Joshua, J.T., Heather; Grandchildren - Haylee, Noa, Travis and Lorelei.