SI.com recently released a top 10 list entitled “NFL Tight End Matchup Nightmares.” I am sure you, like me, expect the smart folks at SI to figure out who the #1 TE in the league is. They are astute football minds. This is an easy one. No way are they going to screw it up.
But they did.
They screwed it up colossally. Their flub is so bad it is actually laughable.
Tony Gonzalez is not #1. He is not #2. He isn’t even #3. Shocked? You might want t sit down because he isn’t #4 either.
He is #5.
Here is what they had to say about the greatest TE to ever play the game of football:
"A first-ballot Hall of Famer who only continues to produce and produce big. At 34, Gonzalez is coming off his seventh consecutive season of at least 70 -catches and 800 yards in receptions. The argument easily could be made he deserves to be No. 1 or No. 2 in this ranking, but he is 34 and the explosiveness and leaping ability have slipped ever so slightly."
Pardon? His skills have diminished?
Guess what picture SI has accompanying this atrocity? A shot of Tony G, in his Falcons uniform, doing his signature football dunk over the goal post. Yep. They have a picture of him jumping high next to a blurb that says he can’t jump high anymore.
They also say his skills have diminished after saying he has 7 consecutive years of 70 catches and at least 800 yards. So what they are saying is that while at 34, he hasn’t gotten any worse than when he was 26, he is losing his touch?
Sees to me he is still going out there and schooling 26 year old linebackers.
Ahead of Tony on this list are in order; Vernon Davis, Jason Witten, Antonio Gates and Dallas Clark.
Dallas Clark?
Time for a history lesson.
Tony Gonzalez has 999 career receptions.
Clark has 356.
Tony Gonzalez has 11,807 career yards receiving.
Clark has 4,188.
Clark is 6-3 and Tony is 6-5.
How is Clark a better matchup?
Oh and I have news for you SI. Tony Gonzalez never drops a pass. Ever.
That is a matchup nightmare.
Gonzalez is a hall of famer still playing at an all-pro level. If I am going in to battle and I can pick any TE in the entire league, I will take a 34, 35 or 36 year old Tony Gonzalez over Clark or any of these other players.
Sorry SI. You laid an egg on this one.