Kansas City Chiefs: Travis Kelce among all-time best tight ends

Kansas City Chiefs fans are lucky.

When it comes to talking about the great player at the tight end position, the Chiefs throw two guys into the ring: Kelce, and Tony Gonzalez.

Gonzalez played in Kansas City from the time he was 21-years-old in 1997 until he got shipped to Atlanta after the 2008 season. In all, he played professionally for 17 seasons.

The Hall of Famer caught 1,325 receptions for 15,127 yards and 111 touchdowns. He had four seasons in which he had more than 1,000 yards receiving: 2000, 2004, 2007, and 2008. He only once topped 100 receptions in a season when he caught 102 passes in 2004. He was a single reception away from the feat in 2007 and caught at least 93 passes three other times in his career.

Who else?

Well, there’s another contender still playing in these playoffs. Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to join Tom Brady in Tampa Bay this season. While his numbers have been down, Gronk is still making an impact for the Buccaneers.

This season, his first outside of New England, he caught 45 passes for 623 yards and seven touchdowns. Gronkowski’s never come all that close to 100 receptions in a season with a career-high of 90 back in 2011, his second season. But the dude puts up big receiving-yard and touchdown numbers.

Gronk has four seasons of at least 1,000 yards receiving, including accomplishing the feat three out of four years between 2014 and 2017. He’s also caught 86 touchdown passes (all from Brady), including a league-leading 17 in 2011.

Let’s talk about another active player, one who faced Kelce in the Super Bowl last year. George Kittle battled injuries this season, missing eight games, but he still managed 48 receptions for 634 yards and two touchdowns.

In 2018, hours after Kelce set the record for receiving yards in a season by a tight end, Kittle broke it, finishing with 1,377. He followed that up with 1,053 last season. But Kittle, who just wrapped his fourth season, has never caught more than 85 passes in a single season while his career-high in touchdowns in just five.

Staying on the West Coast, let’s chat about two Chargers from their days in San Diego. First, there’s Antonio Gates, who retired in 2018 after a 16-year run with the Chargers.

During that time, Gates set the NFL career record for touchdowns by a tight end with 116. He twice caught at least a dozen touchdown passes (2004, 2014). However, he only twice passed 1,000 yards receiving (2005, 2009) while his career-high in receptions was 89 (2005). For Gates, though, it’s his career numbers that fascinate: to go along with his 116 touchdowns, he also grabbed 955 passes for 11,841 yards.

Before there was Gates in San Diego, there was Kellen Winslow, a first-round pick out of Missouri in 1979. Winslow only played nine seasons, but he made the Hall of Fame by revolutionizing the position. He never caught 100 passes in a season, but he led the NFL in receptions with 89 in 1980 and then again with 88 in 1981. He finished third in the league in 1983* with 88. Winslow also had three seasons of at least 1,000 yards receiving while he scored a career-high 10 touchdowns in 1981.

*Oddly enough, he finished behind two other tight ends.

Staying in the AFC West, there’s Denver Broncos great Shannon Sharpe. Sharpe finished with three seasons of 1,000+ yards receiving and came five yards from the feat another time. But he only caught at least 80 passes in three seasons, topping out at 87 in 1994. He caught 10 touchdown passes in both 1996 and 1998. Overall, including a two-year stop in Baltimore, he finished with 815 receptions for 10,060 yards and 62 touchdowns. Like Gronkowski, he won three Super Bowls.