ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- Tight end Travis Kelce is just getting started in his pursuit of Tony Gonzalez. Kelce had a nice debut season for the Kansas City Chiefs last year, leading them in catches with 67 and yards with 862.

He still has miles to go to catch or surpass Gonzalez, the all-time NFL leader in catches, yards and touchdowns for a tight end. Gonzalez did much of that work in his 12 seasons for the Chiefs (he also played five seasons with the Atlanta Falcons).

In order to get there, Kelce spent part of his offseason studying him on film.

"That guy was an athletic guru," Kelce said. "He was head over heels more athletic than anybody else on the field. Half the stuff he did was based off his supreme athleticism, but he was a fundamental technician in the run blocking.

"You could tell he understood defenses just from how he played, where his eyes were, where his awareness was on the field. Half the time what we do out here on the field as tight ends is predicated on the defense."

Kelce's debut season was far superior to Gonzalez's rookie season of 1997. Gonzalez caught 33 passes for 368 yards, less than half of Kelce's 2014 numbers.

Gonzalez took off from there, though. He had 59 catches his next season and never had fewer than 71 receptions for the Chiefs after that.

To similarly improve his game, Kelce turned into something of a film critic during the offseason. He watched not only Gonzalez, but any tight end performing his craft.

"I can't watch football by watching the teams go up and down the field," Kelce said. "Every time I turn on a football game, whether it's college or whether it's professional, I'm kind of just locked in like a magnet to the tight end. I watch his fundamentals, what he does, how he attacks zones. You constantly get better by watching film."

Whether all this pays off when the season begins remains to be seen. But it certainly can't hurt that Kelce appears to be a serious student of the game. Alex Smith indicated during the offseason that Kelce would frequent the quarterback meetings, suggesting changes to routes based off what a defense was doing and then calling for the ball at the line of scrimmage during practice.

"My main focus going into training camp was to understand the intentions of the play call," Kelce said. "I want to understand what Alex is thinking. I want to understand why Coach [Andy] Reid is calling certain plays versus certain coverages and in certain situations. I want to mentally put it all together and become a team player.

"I want to be the best football player I can for this team. Obviously, I want to catch as many passes as I can. I want to go out there and be the best tight end in the league. That can all happen this year as long as I go out there with a lot of focus and a lot of passion."