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

One year before the Chargers drafted Winslow in the first round, the Cleveland Browns drafted their own great tight end in the first.

Ozzie Newsome played college ball at Alabama, and he lasted longer in the pros than did Winslow. Newsome, who retired in 1990 after 13 seasons, caught 662 passes for 7,980 yards and 47 touchdowns. In consecutive seasons, he caught 89 receptions while he cleared 1,000 receiving yards in 1981 and 1984.

After he retired, Newsome joined the Browns front office in 1995 and became the organization’s de facto GM the next season after the move to Baltimore. In 24 years in that role, the Ravens won two Super Bowls.

Before circling back to the present(ish), let’s focus on the tight end who, chronologically, comes first in this exercise: Mike Ditka. The future Super Bowl-winning coach of the Chicago Bears played 12 seasons in the NFL, beginning in 1961 when the Bears drafted him No. 5 overall out of Pittsburgh. He’d go on to play for the Eagles and Cowboys, too, and while he won a Super Bowl with Dallas, his best years came at the start of his career in Chicago.

Ditka’s rookie season, he caught 56 receptions for 1,076 yards. That was good for fourth in the league, but the next tight end on the list was some dude named Bill Anderson came in at 19th with 637. Ditka would never again reach 1,000 yards, but he was still the best receiving tight end of his day. That same season, he scored a career-high 12 touchdowns while he caught 75 passes in 1964.

Two more, both of whom played this season but look cooked.

The first is Las Vegas Raiders tight end Jason Witten. Why Witten signed with Vegas after 16 years with Dallas (including one after giving up his Monday Night Football gig), I’ll never know. Still, the guy’s had a great 17-year career.

Witten broke the 100-reception mark back in 2012 with 110 receptions. In three other campaigns, he grabbed at least 94 passes. He also had at least 1,000 yards receiving four times, in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2012. His career-high in touchdown receptions is nine, and he has 74 career touchdowns.

Lastly, let’s touch on an active player who, much like Ditka, started red-hot before playing only decently the last several years: Jimmy Graham. In Graham’s second season, with the New Orleans Saints, he hauled in 99 receptions for 1,310 yards and 11 touchdowns.

In his fourth season, he caught 86 passes for 1,215 yards and a league-leading 16 touchdowns. He had a fine season after that, then spent a couple of good years with the Seahawks, including two Pro-Bowls seasons in 2016 and 2017, but he’s slowed significantly since.

This past year, his first in Chicago, he did manage to score eight touchdowns. His previous two seasons in Green Bay were forgettable. For his career, Graham has 699 receptions for 8,339 yards and 82 touchdowns.