We are just 10 weeks away from the start of the NFL Season! As we get closer I’ll be breaking down my predictions by division and bringing you other football type shenanigans. But until then, we continue to go position by position of the top 10 of my life time. Today we cover the Tight Ends, probably the easiest list I’ve had to come up with a top 10 but a great challenge of ranking them. Let’s dive in.

On the right track but not there yet: George Kittle

Honorable mention: Todd Christensen, Jeremy Shockey, Steve Jordan, Brent Jones, Jay Novacek, Zach Ertz and Ben Watson

10. Jimmy Graham

Jimmy had a solid career and is 4th all time in tds amongst tight ends. He led the league in tds in 2013 and had double digit touchdowns 4 different times. He was a pro bowler 5 times and was an all pro first team once. He just missed being a part of the Saints Super Bowl team and bounced around the league a bit was a strong contributor for most of his career. He only had two 1,000 yard seasons but is still 8th all time in yards amongst tight ends.

9. Greg Olsen

Olsen was always a solid player and sort of a steady eddy until he had a 3 year run when Cam was the Panthers QB. During that 3 year run, he had a thousand yards each season, made the pro bowl, had 77 or more catches and went to a Super Bowl. Injuries derailed his career but he is still 7th all time in yards and 9th in tds among tight ends. He has also become a very solid announcer minus the time he said the refs shouldn’t call a clear penalty on an Eagles player in the Super Bowl a few years ago.

8. Kellen Winslow

Winslow would probably be higher on older people’s lists. His career was short but impactful. I was 8 when he was retired so that definitely factors in. But I think we all remember the image of him being carried off the field after that extremely long playoff game. He is a 5 time pro bowler and a 3 time first team all pro. He led the league in receptions 2 years in a row. He was a pass catching receiver before it was cool. Plus he went to Mizzou. Had he played now, he’d likely have a thousand yards every year.

7. Ozzie Newsome

Ozzie is probably to me what Kellen was to my older brother. He was “the” tight end of my childhood along with Steve Jordan of the Vikings. I remember Ozzie battling it out in the playoffs with Bernie Kosar and the gang. They always came up just short. He was a 3 time pro bowler and AP 1st team once and 2nd team a few other times. He had a thousand yards twice and to this day is 10th all time in yards and 12th in tds. He never had ridiculous stats but was consistent and turned out to be one of the better player to front office workers of all time.

6. Shannon Sharpe

I’m not gonna spend a lot of time here because I can’t stand Shannon Sharpe. For everything I love about his brother, Sterling there is an equal thing I dislike about him. But he was an 8 time pro bowler and 4 time all pro. He won three super bowls and was the tight end of the 90s. He was a great football player even if he sucks as a person. Enough said.

5. Jason Witten

Choosing the top 5 was easy but picking the order was difficult. There is an argument for these 5 guys to be in all sorts of an order. Witten is 5 for me as I put the other 4 a little ahead of him. Witten is second all time in yards only to Tony G. He is 20th all time among all players. He is 6th all time in TDS. He has over 13,000 yards receiving and over 70 tds. He had over a thousand yards 4 times and was a pro bowler a ridiculous 11 times. His longevity playing 17 seasons definitely helped him but he definitely deserves to be on this list and is deserving of a top 5 ranking.

4. Antonio Gates

Gates was touchdown machine, racking up 116 in his career and leads all tight ends in the category. He is 4th in yards and if it wasn’t for the rise of Gronk and Kelce, he may have gone down in history as the second greatest tight end of all time. He’s an 8 time pro bowler and a 3 time all pro. Playing for the Chargers I got to watch Gates play on tv against the Chiefs a lot. He was often dominant but always relevant. He could score from different places on the field but was one of the most dangerous red zone threats ever. He never had much playoff success which is pretty normal for a Charger but he was a hell of a tight end.

3. Tony Gonzalez

Tony G was the tight end for 17 years. He had less than 800 yards only 4 times in his career. He was a pro bowler a ridiculous 14 times. He was a first team all pro 6 times and a second team all pro another 4 times. He is first in receptions, receiving yards and second in touchdowns. He is 6th all time among all players in receiving yards. He’s 8th all time in touchdowns. And only Jerry Rice and Larry Fitzgerald have more catches than him. And he even played for my beloved Chiefs. So what is he doing all the way down at 3rd? Well you can certainly make an argument for him to be number 1. But I watched him play. And I watched the other 2 play. And I know the rules are different and blah, blah, blah. But he never took over games and especially meaningful games the way the other two did. He is an all time great and deserving of the number 1 spot but he is also a head of both statistically partially because of simply playing longer. I mean he has played nearly a hundred more games than Kelce. He gets points for being healthy and effective for so long but push comes to shove, I’m taking the other two over him. It is also fair to put Tony G above them both because Tony did accomplish a lot with mostly average quarterback play…but I digress.

2. Travis Kelce

Travis has done more for my fandom than anyone not named Patrick Mahomes. He’s been amazing. He was awesome before Pat. But his connection with Pat rivals any connection out there. Travis is the only guy to have a thousand yards 7 years in a row. The only reason he didn’t have 8 in a row is because he unselfishly sat out the last game in order to rest up and be healthy for the playoffs. Speaking of playoffs, Kelce is the all time leader in every playoff category among tight ends. He is first all time among all players all time in receptions and trails only Jerry Rice in yards and touchdowns. He’s 3rd all time among tight ends in receptions and yards and 5th in tds. Among all players he is 14th all time in receptions and 28th in yards. He’s been a pro bowler 10 years in a row. He’s an all pro first team 4 times and 2nd team 3 years in a row. He’s had over 100 receptions 3 times. As awesome as he has been in the regular season he is even better in the playoffs. If you took his playoff stats and averaged them out during a season his line would be 121 catches for over 1400 yards and 14 touchdowns. He has the opportunity to move into the first spot but I want to see how he responds to his very off year last year. He looks like he is back in shape so that should help.

1. Rob Gronkowski

I never pretend to be unbiased but I think I have been pretty fair with these lists. I don’t really like Gronk. I think he is annoying. And I am not sure that he is all there. But he was one hell of a tight end. Gronk was unguardable. The only thing that could stop Gronk was injuries. He has the all time record for touchdowns in a season with 17. He’s 10th in receptions, 6th in yards and 3rd in touchdowns. But he did all that in only 143 games. 127 less games than Tony G. He’s a 5 time pro bowler, 4 times all pro and a touchdown machine. Travis looked stoppable last year and Gronk never looked stoppable, he just got hurt. I think Travis can still pass him. But I think if most of us were building a team for one season, one post season run, or one game we would pick Gronk as our tight end. No matter how annoying we might find him.