Taylor Swift was back in town to watch Kansas City Chiefs continue their perfect start to the NFL season on Monday night.

Swift missed Travis Kelce’s birthday in Kansas City over the weekend as the tight-end turned 35 at the second annual Kelce Car Jam charity event. But the pop superstar was in attendance at Arrowhead Stadium to see the Chiefs beat New Orleans Saints 26-13 to move to 5-0.

Kelce wasn’t the star of the show, with running back Kareem Hunt rushing for 102 yards and a touchdown and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster clocking 130 yards. But after a slow start to the campaign, the veteran tight-end was back to his old self, picking up 70 yards on nine catches as Patrick Mahomes’ number one target.

He was also deeply involved in Xavier Worthy’s touchdown, taking the direct snap in an Andy Reid special before handing off to the speedy wide receiver. Overall, it was a hugely positive night for the Chiefs, who now have a week off before taking on the San Francisco 49ers on October 20.

Swift was inside Kelce’s box at Arrowhead Stadium and gave her thoughts to Chariah Gordon – the partner of Kelce’s team-mate Mecole Hardman – afterwards. “How do you feel after this win?” Gordon asked in a video on her Instagram story.

“No, it’s important that you answer the question this time,” Swift said, before Gordon continued: “I think that we feel really good about this week, we are 5-0.” Swift then interjected: “Going into a bye week” before agreeing with Gordon by concluding: “Perfect is the word!”

The focus after the match was on Smith-Schuster and Hunt – two players who didn’t start the season with the Chiefs, but were brought back by Reid. Hunt led the league in rushing for the Chiefs as a rookie in 2017, while Smith-Schuster helped them win the Super Bowl in 2022 before leaving for the New England Patriots.

Mahomes was full of praise for Smith-Schuster on Monday night – and even compared him to Kelce. “Trav is kind of one of a kind, but [Smith-Schuster] has a good feel for the entire concept of the play and so he knows how to get into the open spots,” Mahomes said. “He did a good job today of beating man when they played man and finding windows [in zone] to get big catches.”

He added: “It’s a credit to not only the guys and how hard they work, but coach Reid and just knowing their skill sets and how to put them in great positions. Kareem just runs extremely hard.

“He gets every yard out there, catches the ball, does whatever it takes in order to go out there and win. [Smith-Schuster] fits in well in this offense and so he did a great job today. It was cool to get those guys going.”