Retired Jason Kelce Hits Unbelievable Sprint Speeds During 'Exhausting' NFL Workout

Jason Kelce might be retired, but the man clearly hasn’t slowed down. The 37-year-old former Philadelphia Eagles center recently returned to his old home at the Philadelphia Eagles training facility to see if he still has what it takes to survive a pro football player's workout. Though no longer in full-season shape, he still showcased the impressive speed and strength that made him one of the league’s most dominant centers.

For the workout, Kelce teamed up with the Eagles' Director of Player Performance and Sports Science, Fernando Noriega, testing his strength, speed, and endurance in drills meant to push NFL athletes to their limits. To determine if the retiree could still handle an NFL workout, Noriega compared his current performance to results and numbers from his playing days.

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Warmup

For Kelce's warmup, he began with Theragun work before running through a series of mobility drills, including supine twists, field goal arm movements, and banded marches to wake up the hips.

From there, he got his footwork firing with a lateral shuffle into a carioca combo across the field before moving onto agility ladder drills. Despite a few expected blunders, Kelce was impressively quick at the drills. Still, he admitted his coordination felt "off."

Sprints

Once the speed work started, Kelce’s competitive spirit kicked in. According to Noriega, his fastest sprint speed during his playing days was 19.2 miles per hour. This time, he hit 19.64 and then pushed it even higher to 19.72 mph in an attempt to hit 20 mph.

“Some of the guys that are playing now probably can’t hit that,” Noriega said.

Power and Strength Tests

Next, they moved on to power and strength tests. Kelce began with three sets of three-rep power squats to measure his leg power. His target score to beat was 2,600 watts, and he started with 2,200. On his second set, he hit 3,175 watts, and on his third, he peaked at 3,700 watts, shy of his 4,251-watt benchmark from his playing days.

After that came the force plate, which measures how much power and force an athlete generates when they jump or push off the ground. His 2023 peak output was 9,362 watts, and his best effort this time came in just over 7,000 watts.

The highlight of the session was the barbell back squat challenge. Kelce warmed up with 135 pounds, then climbed through 225, 315, 375, and 405 before hitting 455 pounds, proving he hasn't lost his strength. He even attempted 505 pounds but failed out.

Upper-Body Workout

He wrapped up the workout with several back-focused exercises, including incline dumbbell presses, neutral-grip lat pulldowns, TRX rows, kettlebell J presses, and barbell bicep curls.

The finisher was a plate pinch hold for 30 seconds, which is performed by holding a weight plate between the thumb and fingers. Kelce dropped the left plate with eight seconds to go but held the right one to the very end.

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