5 NFL stars who dominated National Tight Ends day in style during the Week 8 slate

The fourth Sunday of October is forever known as National Tight Ends Day. It is an NFL tradition as old as time. The NFL made a huge deal about it in Week 8 coinciding with the big holiday. More importantly, several stars made their position group with their play. Over the last few decades, the position has been transformed from a potential third-down threat to being a focal point of an offense.

Growing up in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I saw first-hand the position group level up a bit. Tony Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe first took it up a level. I saw legends of the position like Antonio Gates and Jason Witten show us what possession receiving from the position looked like. Then, I saw peers of mine like Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce do the impossible by making this into a glamor position.

While I did not play organized football, my size and athleticism would have probably had me playing tight end, probably not very well. Being 6-foot-something with great hands is a plus, but not really being a willing blocker would have made my coach hate me. Then again, I could have been the Kyle Pitts before more time. Even better, I could have been the Travis Kelce from the Metro Atlanta area.

Let's start with a tight end I saw first-hand ball out on Sunday in a losing effort for his NFC franchise.

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Cade Otton

CBS touched on eight tight ends in particular in the post I linked to above. I decided that five was a better number for me in this exercise. The first tight end I want to touch on was Cade Otton of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay may have suffered its second loss to Atlanta in divisional play, but Otton did everything in his part to be the most reliable target for Baker Mayfield on Sunday afternoon.

Otton had nine catches for 81 yards and two touchdowns on the day. Keep in mind that Tampa Bay was without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin in this game. It ultimately came down to a failed Hail Mary attempt, but it was great possession receiving that helped keep Tampa Bay in the game. Atlanta's hit or miss defense had a difficult time covering Otton all afternoon. This was a great effort made by him.

Tampa Bay may be 4-4 on the season now, but Otton has been an impressive player all season long.

4. Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride

Trey McBride may not have found the end zone, but he played a huge part in the Arizona Cardinals pulling off quite the impressive comeback over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon. On the day, McBride had nine catches for 24 yards, allowing this upstart Arizona team to improve to 4-4 on the season. The Cardinals enter Week 9 tied for first place with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC West.

To me, these are the type of wins that ascending teams like Arizona start to turn the corner as a franchise. While the Los Angeles Rams circle the drain, Arizona looks to be in for quite the battle with San Francisco and Seattle for divisional supremacy. Even win matters, just like every yard that McBride got on the receiving end from Kyler Murray in a very impressive road victory for Arizona.

This team is starting to figure it out, so look for McBride to have more great games like this here soon.

3. Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce

Even though his quarterback Patrick Mahomes has not played well for the most part this season, Travis Kelce remains an institution at tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. In the Chiefs' latest victory over the rival Las Vegas Raiders, Kelce had 10 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown as the focal point of Kansas City's passing attack. It was vintage Kelce. Kansas City is the only undefeated team.

As stated above, Kelce is a transformative player in this position group. He is firmly in his mid-30s, but is arguably a top-three tight end of all time. He may not have the numbers of fellow Chiefs legend Tony Gonzalez, but he is starting to get up there with Rob Gronkowski when it comes to Super Bowls. Kelce will finish with better numbers because of his longevity, but he remains a must-watch player.

The Chiefs have not played anything close to their best brand of football, but they still have not lost.

2. Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts

This was one of the better parts of my Sunday afternoon. Not only did my Atlanta Falcons get the win by sweeping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to improve to 5-3 overall and 4-0 in the division, but tight end Kyle Pitts was a revelation during National Tight Ends Day. The former No. 4 overall pick out of Florida had four catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns. One of them was almost a total disaster.

Through his first eight starts for the Falcons, quarterback Kirk Cousins had no issues carving up the Tampa Bay defense. One of his favorite targets over their two games with their division rival has been Pitts. While Pitts has at times disappeared from the offense, his athleticism has been on full display in both games vs. Tampa Bay. He should be thankful his second touchdown was not ruled a bad fumble.

Atlanta might be 3-5 and not 5-3 if not for Pitts' great performances in both games vs. Tampa Bay.

1. San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle

It would not be National Tight Ends Day if George Kittle did not have a great performance. He was massively important in his San Francisco 49ers coming out on top over a historic rival in the Dallas Cowboys. Kittle had six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown in the primetime affair on Sunday Night Football. This got the 49ers back to. 500 and in a very tight race with two other divisional foes.

He may have been a co-creator of the national football holiday, but Kittle is perhaps the next megastar at the position group to take tight ends to new heights. He is a bit younger than Travis Kelce, but plays on another perennial contender in San Francisco. Kittle is both fun to watch go to work, as well as being a master at his craft in every sense of the world. He is the prototype after all.

Kittle's latest greatest performance has Cowboys, Yankees and Lakers fans in a really awful place.