INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Travis Kelce is playing for the Kansas City Chiefs or retiring. Mike Evans is returning for another season and will explore his options.
The future of both superstars was among many topics at the NFL scouting combine on Tuesday.
Kelce is scheduled to become a free agent next month. A person with knowledge of Kelce’s thinking told The Associated Press the four-time All-Pro tight end will not test the market. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because free agency hasn’t started. If the 36-year-old Kelce returns for a 14th season, it’ll be in Kansas City with coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The Chiefs, of course, want him back.
“I think we’ve kind of taken a different approach with Travis in the sense that we’ve prepared for either scenario,” GM Brett Veach said. “Coach had mentioned on Friday (that) he’s had great dialogue with Travis. On our end, myself, (assistant general manager) Chris Shea and Travis’ crew, we’ve had some good dialogue there. I’m sure we’re going to see him here just like we will all the other players’ agents and we’ll continue that dialogue. Travis is the best, he’s an icon and hopefully he comes back and we’ll just let that process play out.”
Kelce, an 11-time Pro Bowl selection, had 76 catches for 851 yards and five touchdowns last season when Kansas City’s run of dominance in the AFC West ended. The Chiefs have reached the Super Bowl five times in the past seven seasons, winning three.
“It’s not your typical — hey, 27-year-old first time in free agency,” Veach said. “Travis has done everything, he’s accomplished everything — he’s about to get married, he’s got a lot going on. So, I don’t think there’s an element of us not trying to — you need some sort of deadline (or) timeline but at the same time, it’s Travis Kelce so we’re just going to continue to have positive dialogue and see where this thing ends. I think we’re trying to position ourselves that either way, we have a plan moving forward.”
Evans is planning to play a 13th season but it may not be with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver had his streak of 11 consecutive 1,000-yard seasons end when he missed nine games because of injuries.
“I love Mike, and we’d love to have Mike back,” general manager Jason Licht said. “And he’s earned the right to (test free agency) with his resume. Mike, as a person, what he’s meant to this entire community, the fan base, all of us, I could go on and on, which we have, he’s earned that right. We’d love to have Mike back. We’re just seeing how the process goes.”
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Kansas City Chiefs' Travis Kelce reacts after hitting from the first tee at Pebble Beach Golf Links during the second round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament in Pebble Beach, Calif., Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a 70-year-old grocery store owner was put to death Tuesday in Florida, becoming the second person executed by the state this year after a record 19 executions in 2025.
Melvin Trotter, 65, was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1986 stabbing death of Virgie Langford.
The curtain to the execution chamber went up at the scheduled 6 p.m. execution time. Trotter declined to give a last statement and the drugs began flowing about two minutes later. Trotter began to breath heavily and twitch about a minute afterward. Then his movements slowed about two minutes later.
The prison warden checked Trotter's face and shouted his name, but there was no reaction. A medic was then called in at 6:14 p.m. to check the inmate's vital signs and Trotter was declared dead a minute later.
The execution and another earlier this month in Florida follow the unprecedented 19 executions carried out by the state last year. In 2025, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty's reinstatement in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions in 2014.
According to court records, Trotter stabbed and strangled Langford on June 16, 1986, at her store in Palmetto near the southern edge of Tampa Bay. Afterward, a truck driver found Langford bleeding but alive on the back floor of the store, and she provided key details about her attacker before dying at a hospital.
Besides recalling Trotter’s physical appearance, Langford said he had a Tropicana employee badge with the name “Melvin” on it. According to court records, police later found a T-shirt with Langford’s blood type at Trotter’s home and the man’s handprint on a meat cooler at the store.
In 1987, Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Then, after the state Supreme Court found the trial court erred in handling aggravating factors in his case, he again drew the death penalty at resentencing in 1993.
The Florida Supreme Court recently denied appeals to block the execution. Trotter's attorneys argued officials had mismanaged his death penalty protocols. They also said Trotter's advanced age of 65 merited exempting him from execution.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Trotter’s final appeal Tuesday afternoon.
Separately, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised questions about the state’s administration of lethal drugs. Trotter’s attorneys argued that Florida could “maladminister” the state’s protocol in a way that heightens the risk for a “mangled” execution in violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
Sotomayor wrote that, going forward, she hopes the state “will recognize the paramount importance of ensuring that it conducts executions consistently” with the proper protocols.
A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each last year.
Besides the two Florida executions this year, Texas and Oklahoma have conducted one execution each so far in 2026.
On Feb. 10, a man convicted of killing a traveling salesperson became the first person executed in Florida this year. Ronald Palmer Heath, 64, received a lethal injection for the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.
Two more Florida executions are scheduled next month starting with Billy Leon Kearse on March 3 and then Michael Lee King on March 17.
All Florida executions are carried out by injecting a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.
Hours before Tuesday's execution, Florida Corrections officials said, Trotter awoke at 3:20 a.m. and had one visitor during the day but did not meet with a spiritual adviser. He requested a meal that included fish, cornbread, cake and soda.
FILE - Clouds hover over the entrance of the Florida State Prison in Starke, Fla., Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Curt Anderson, File)
