Shannon Sharpe’s career stats prove former Broncos star was underappreciated in his time

For many of the younger generation, Shannon Sharpe is the opinionated NFL analyst who has come to grace our screens. But they forget just how immense a player he was in his heyday and why he is one of the greatest tight ends ever to play the game.

There are many reasons why he does not get the same love that others did in their time. His offensive contributions were forgotten while celebrating John Elway's back-to-back Super Bowl victories before retirement.

When Sharpe won the Super Bowl again with the Baltimore Ravens, it was chalked down to their dominant defense. Despite such omissions, his stats prove why he was one of the best in the business and why he needs to be appreciated more.

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Shannon Sharpe stats: One of the best tight ends of all time

Shannon Sharpe ended his career with 10,060 receiving yards and 62 touchdowns. They were both records for tight ends at the time. He became the first tight end to break the 10,000 receiving yards barrier.

He made it to seven straight Pro Bowls from 1992 to 1998 with the Denver Broncos and made it to one more in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens. Among them were five All-Pro selections, four to the first team. He won Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII with the Denver Broncos and XXXV with the Baltimore Ravens.

He played 203 games across 14 seasons in the NFL. With the exception of the 1999 season, when he played just five games, he scored a touchdown in every single one of them. His most productive seasons were in 1996 and 1998, when he had 10 receiving touchdowns in each season.

He crossed the 1,000 receiving yards barrier three times in his career, achieving that in 1994, 1996, and 1997. When you consider that he played as a mediocre wide receiver for the first two years of his NFL career, his stats become even more remarkable.

In the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Shannon Sharpe had career highs in receiving yards and touchdowns, respectively. In both those seasons, he won the Super Bowl. After his curtailed 1999 season, he joined the Baltimore Ravens in 2000 and promptly won a Super Bowl ring there as well.

He started all of the regular season games and had some big plays in the postseason as well. His 96-yard touchdown in the AFC Championship game against the Oakland Raiders remains the biggest team offensive play in Ravens franchise history.

Shannon Sharpe has always had these big games from time to time and his 214 yards in a single game is still an NFL record for tight ends. For his accolades, this former seventh-round pick was selected as a Hall of Famer in 2011.