Rob Gronkowski’s sudden retirement from the NFL leaves the New England Patriots without a star at the tight end position, but the NFL has still plenty of big named hybrid’s who present a combination of skill, size, speed, toughness, and agility that make them the toughest covers in all of football.
During the recent NFL owners meetings in Phoenix, ESPN NFL Insiders sat down with four head coaches and four personnel evaluators to name the NFL’s best tight end now that Gronk has moved on to a future in the WWE. There was no consensus on the matter, but the eight voters narrowed the top guy in the league to one of three choices, with the Chiefs Travis Kelce getting the nod. The Eagles star and Pro Bowler, Zach Ertz finished a close second.
Ertz, 28, broke Jason Witten’s single-season record for tight ends with 116 receptions on the season and went over the thousand yard mark for the 1st time as a pro.
The consensus on Kelce was that because of his length and speed, he was essentially a tougher matchup than Ertz, leading the experts to pick him as the new king of the position.
Per ESPN:
Offensive-minded head coach: “Kelce and Ertz are both good, but I think Kelce is a little tougher matchup. Some of these guys are ‘F’ and some are ‘Y’ tight ends. Gronk could do it all.”
Defensive-minded head coach: “My mind immediately goes to which one is the hardest to guard. Kelce is a little longer, a little faster [than Ertz].”
General manager: “I am going to go Kelce, with the possibility of that person becoming Evan Engram. Kittle is good, but like many of the players who have been with Kyle Shanahan, he should feel blessed. I mean, look at what Kyle did with the backs in Atlanta. Look at what he did with Matt Ryan.”
Kelce, who amazingly is the same age as the retiring Gronkowksi, leads NFL tight ends in receiving yards (3,499) and receiving touchdowns (22) over the past three seasons. The younger brother of the Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce, Travis Kelce became the first tight end in league history with at least 100 receptions, 1,300 yards and 10 touchdowns in a season in 2018.
San Francisco 49ers’ George Kittle, the New York Giants’ Evan Engram, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ O.J. Howard, Ertz teammate on the Eagles’ Dallas Goedert and the Baltimore Ravens’ Mark Andrews were other players to watch.
Last season, Kittle, 25, set an NFL single-season record for tight ends with 1,377 receiving yards, which included 855 yards after the catch, nearly 300 yards more than Kelce.
