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We have been blessed with some great tight ends in the NFL's recent history, and Tony Gonzalez certainly makes the cut as one of them. Tony Gonzalez played in the NFL from 1997 to 2013. In those 17 seasons, he made it to 14 Pro Bowls. This is the second-highest selection volume of any player in NFL history, right behind Tom Brady and tied with Peyton Manning.
He was also the receptions leader in 2004, which is a phenomenal achievement considering he is a tight end and not a wide receiver. He has the most career receptions for a tight end with 1,325. His 15,127 yards is also an NFL record for the most receiving yards by a tight end in the league. He was a member of the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019. An incredibly reliable performer, he missed just two games in his entire professional career.
No doubt, he is one of the greatest tight ends of all time. How does he fare when we dive deeper into his stats? Is he the greatest of all time?
Comparing Tony Gonzalez's stats with other great tight ends
Factoring in reliability and staying injury-free as metrics of greatness, we decided to check his averages over all the seasons he played to determine just where he stands in the pantheon of great tight ends.
He has an average of 889.8 receiving yards per season and 77.9 receptions per season. He has averaged 11.4 yards per reception across his career. His receiving yards per game were 56 on average. He also scored 111 touchdowns in his career, averaging 6.5 touchdowns per season.
To get an idea of how good these numbers are, we decided to compare them with other tight ends like Shannon Sharpe, Rob Gronkowski, and Travis Kelce.
Shannon Sharpe, like Tony Gonzalez, is also a Hall-of-Famer. He had 815 receptions at a 58.2 average per season. His 10,060 yards equate to 718.6 yards per season. Both are lower than Gonzalez, but Shannon Sharpe played his first couple of seasons as a wide receiver and played only 5 games in 1999. His average yards per reception were higher than Gonzalez's at 12.3 yards per reception. He has scored 62 touchdowns for 4.4 touchdowns per season.
Rob Gronkowski has 9,286 yards and 621 receptions in his career. In a career curtailed by injuries, he still averaged 844.2 yards per season and 56.6 receptions on average. That equates to 15 receiving yards per reception over the course of his career. His 64.9 receiving yards per game are also higher than Tony Gonzalez, he has also scored 92 touchdowns at 8.4 per season, which is nearly two more per season than Gonzalez.
Finally, we also look at Travis Kelce, the current Kansas City Chiefs tight end who is vying for his crown as not only the best tight end in the NFL, but also the same franchise. Travis Kelce has a mammoth 781 receptions in 10 seasons, for an average of 78.1 receptions per season. Consider that he recorded nothing of note in his first season. He has 9,974 yards at 997.4 yards per season. His 12.8 receiving yards per catch is also more than Tony Gonzalez's average. He has 71.8 receiving yards per game, which is higher than everybody else we are considering here. He also has 69 touchdowns at 6.9 touchdowns per season.
Tony Gonzalez has been outperformed in all or some of the averages by the other three great tight ends we've looked at. Also, unlike the others we have mentioned, he never won a Super Bowl. However, given that football is a team sport, that is not something we can hold against him.
But it is hard to call him the greatest tight end of all time because the same could be said for everyone else on this list. What we have no hesitation in saying, however, is that he is unquestionably one of the greatest.
