From 99-0, TeamFB7 is looking back on the greatest players in NFL history to don each jersey number. No ties allowed, tough decisions will be made — next is No. 88 and Tony Gonzalez.
The evolution of the tight end into a prioritized pass-catching weapon in the NFL progressed slowly over several decades, with multiple Hall of Famers changing the mold piece by piece.
Mike Ditka was the standard-setter in the 1960s. He became the first true tight end to top 1,000 receiving yards in a season when he caught 56 passes for 1,076 yards and 12 TDs as a rookie for the Chicago Bears in 1961. He never had another 1,000-yard season, though, and finished with 5,812 yards and 43 TDs over 12 seasons.
John Mackey was drafted two years after Ditka and added a different dynamic as a true field-stretcher, averaging over 20 yards per reception in two of his first three seasons with the Baltimore Colts. He finished with 5,236 yards and 38 TDs in 10 years.
The Progression Of The Modern NFL TE
Kellen Winslow came along in the 1980s (drafted in 1979) and took it to the next level, with innovative San Diego Chargers coach Don Coryell putting the 6-foot-5, 250-pound mismatch in motion as part of his dynamic “Air Coryell” passing attack, expanding the ways in which a tight end could attack defenses.
Winslow led the NFL in receptions in back-to-back seasons with 89 for 1,290 yards and 9 TDs in 1980 and 88-1,075-10 in 1981. Unfortunately, he was never really the same after a devastating knee injury in 1984 and finished with 6,741 yards and 45 TDs over nine years.
Shannon Sharpe took the torch next in the 1990s — eventually. A seventh-round pick (No. 192 overall) out of Savannah State in 1990, he didn’t start emerging until his third season with the Denver Broncos. While his peak was perhaps not quite as high as Winslow’s, he sustained his impact much longer while piling up 10,060 yards and 62 TDs over 14 seasons with the Broncos and Ravens.
The true finished product of this tight end evolution was still to come.
Tony Gonzalez Broke The Mold At Tight End
Which leads us to our choice as the greatest No. 88 in NFL history — Tony Gonzalez.
The 6-foot-5, 247-pound Gonzalez was a two-sport athlete at Cal, playing football and basketball, and with his combination of size, agility, catch radius and elite hands he had both an incredible peak and even more amazing longevity while playing 17 NFL seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs and later the Atlanta Falcons.
A first-round pick in 1997, Gonzalez improved through his first few seasons while breaking out in 1999 with 76 catches for 849 yards and 11 touchdowns, earning the first of 10 straight Pro Bowl invites (and 14 overall). He earned six first-team All-Pro honors and four second-team honors.
Gonzalez would go on to have 12 seasons with more yards than that 849-yard breakout. He had at least 70 catches in 14 of his 17 seasons, setting career-highs with 102 catches for 1,258 yards in 2004.
Nowadays it’s no surprise to see a tight end top 100 receptions in a season — it’s happened 10 times since 2020, including Trey McBride’s TE-record 126 last year for the Arizona Cardinals — but it had never been done before Gonzalez hit that mark.
Tony Gonzalez’s Decline Never Came
Most notably of all, though, he showed minimal decline over those 17 seasons and played in 270 of a possible 272 regular-season games overall.
Traded to the Falcons for a second-round pick in the spring of 2009 at 33 years old, Gonzalez averaged 82 catches, 837 yards and 7 TDs over five more seasons. In his final year in 2013 at age 37, he still looked like vintage “Tony G” with 83 catches for 859 yards and 8 TDs.
Not only is he the all-time leader for catches and yards by a tight end, but it’s not even close.
With 1,325 receptions, Gonzalez had 97 more than Jason Witten (second on the list with 1,228) and 245 more than Travis Kelce (third with 1,080 and counting). His 15,127 receiving yards is 2,081 more than Witten’s total (second with 13,046) and he ranks second among tight ends with 111 TDs (behind Antonio Gates’ 116).
For that matter, Gonzalez ranks third all-time in receptions among all players behind Hall of Fame wide receivers Jerry Rice and Larry Fitzgerald, sixth in receiving yards overall and ninth in receiving touchdowns and went into the Pro Football Hall of Fame his first year on the ballot.
One could make the case that Gonzalez remains the greatest tight end of all-time, though there are arguments for Rob Gronkowski when factoring in his impact as an elite blocker and his four Super Bowl rings, and Travis Kelce is still going with an already legendary resume of his own in Kansas City.
Regardless, Gonzalez is an all-timer.
The Great Debate At No. 88
Along with the great debate at No. 99, the list of legends to wear No. 88 didn’t make for an easy decision here.
That list includes …
– Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison: 1,102 catches (5th all-time) for 14,580 yards (9th) and 128 TDs (5th), 8 Pro Bowls, three-time first-team All-Pro, five-time second-team All-Pro, Super Bowl champion with the Indianapolis Colts.
– Hall of Fame wide receiver Michael Irvin: 750 catches for 11,904 yards and 65 TDs, 5 Pro Bowls, three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys.
– And Hall of Fame 1970s wide receivers Drew Pearson (48-7,822-48 with the Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl champ) and Lynn Swann (336-5,462-51 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, four-time Super Bowl champ, Super Bowl MVP).
The Other Top Contender
But the most deserving runner-up among the all-time greatest 88s is arguably Minnesota Vikings Hall of Fame defensive tackle Alan Page. His 148.5 sacks (unofficially) would rank 8th all-time but sacks weren’t an official NFL stat during his career (1967-81).
He is one of just two defensive players to ever win NFL MVP, doing so in 1971 as part of the Vikings’ fearsome “Purple People Eaters” defensive line. He also won Defensive Player of the Year that season, played in 9 Pro Bowls, was a five-time first-team All-Pro, three-time second-team All-Pro and played in 218 consecutive games.
Page absolutely could have been the choice here, but Gonzalez broke the mold at his position, changing expectations for NFL tight ends and, to some degree, how the league scouted the position.
For instance, Gates was signed by the Chargers despite only playing basketball in college at Kent State and went on to a Hall of Fame career of his own. And now many star tight ends in the league are better known for their pass-catching production than their blocking prowess.
It was a tough choice in the end, but Gonzalez helped finish the evolution of the tight end position. That along with his longevity and never showing any obvious decline ultimately gives him the nod here as the greatest 88 of them all.
