How does Antonio Gates stack up to the all-time tight ends?

When Antonio Gates came back from his four-week suspension, most people expected him to take a week or two to ramp up. Even his most ardent supporters probably didn’t expect him to catch nine balls off 11 targets for 92 yards and a pair of touchdowns that he made look easy.

Even though Gates didn’t score against the Green Bay Packers in his second week back, he still topped 90 yards on another nine catches.

We know Gates is inching towards the end of a tremendous career and this insane production is a good reminder that while he’s had a few down seasons (2012 comes to mind), he’s been one of the best to ever play the position.

One of the best, but how does he stack up against the rest of the group? Is he better than Tony Gonzalez? Is his impact greater than John Mackey’s? How does he compare to active tight ends like Rob Gronkowski and Jason Witten?

Let’s first acknowledge that it’s almost impossible to compare the modern tight end—you can lump Gates in with Gonzalez, Gronk and Witten—to a different era’s tight end. What Mike Ditka was asked to do (aside from not break wind) or Shannon Sharpe’s responsibilities just weren’t the same as what the modern tight end is asked to do.

On one hand, it’s not remotely fair to compare even Kellen Winslow—one of the best pass-catching tight ends of all time—with guys like Gronkowski or Gates. On the other hand, we can talk impact. Certainly the impact of Gates is worthy of a discussion alongside individuals from earlier eras who, like Winslow, took the play of the position to new heights.

We can look at his career through both lenses.

Gates is an interesting transition piece for the position too, as he is a tremendous and athletic pass-catcher but also a solid (though not incredible) blocker. Tight ends used to be primarily blockers who could catch on occasion.

So in terms of changing how we looked at tight ends, Gates was one of the first (behind Tony Gonzalez, who joined the league in 1997 and with Witten who was a rookie with Gates in 2003) to really begin the wholesale transition of the tight end having a huge role in the passing game.

While Winslow and Sharpe were good receiving options—and important to their offense—they weren’t what amounted to an extra receiver on the field. Further, the athleticism Gates brought to the table was unlike what those players possessed.

I’d place Gates slightly ahead of the earlier “golden age of football” tight ends. Unfair though it is, they just cannot compare in terms of changing the game as well as overall ability and athleticism. If there is a guy who I would have loved to see play in this pass-happy, move tight end era, it’d be Winslow or Sharpe, but for now I would rank Gates ahead of them.

Gates (like Gonzalez) was a former basketball player (and in fact, never played college football), and his ball skills and overall combination of size, speed and athletic ability were new to the NFL. The Chargers embraced this and once he plodded through the same tough transition so many players have their rookie years, Gates exploded on the scene. He topped 900 yards all of the next four years, topping 1,000 yards once as well, while scoring nine or more touchdowns as season as well.

Gonzalez was a little more consistent over the course of his career than Gates has been. Though if he were to play the same amount of seasons as Gonzalez (17) Gates could topple many of the former’s records.

I’d end up putting Gonzalez ahead of Gates, in part because he really was the first of a kind, but also because as it stands right now, he accomplished more (and at times with a much worse supporting cast).

What about Witten? I think Jason Witten is one of the most overlooked tight ends in the game today, lost in the shuffle between Gonzalez, Gates and Rob Gronkowski. He’s not as dynamic a pass-catcher as any of the three, but probably better as an all-around tight end than any of them.

At the end of the day though, Witten has also been overshadowed by great receivers lining up with him. It’s hard to have a huge impact when you have guys like Dez Bryant and Terrell Owens getting massive targets, or players like Miles Austin having career years under quarterback Tony Romo. Witten’s been overshadowed, but it’s still hard to put him on quite the same level as Gates/Gonzalez in terms of impact.

A guy swiftly overtaking all three tight ends is Gronkowski.You can make the argument he’s already better than Gates, even though his statistical output is not on the same level (arguably because Gronk has played a fraction of the time). If there is a knock on Gronkowski that Gates doesn’t struggle with, it’s health.

While Gates has been banged up over the years, Gronkowski has managed to have some much more serious injuries he couldn’t play through. He’s had just two complete seasons (though last year he totaled 15 games). So the concern with Gronkowski becomes length of career and whether he will last even close to the years Gates/Gonzalez/Witten will have put in.

I’d make the argument though that aside from Gonzalez, no tight end has made the impact Gronkowski has to date and he deserves to be high on this list, possibly beside Gates right now.

In the end, we know Gates still has some gas in the tank. So he can add to a legacy that is already pretty amazing. If he hung his cleats up right now though, he’d be in the top five tight ends to ever play the game and I cannot imagine it will be easy to dig him out anytime soon.