The folks over at Pro Football Focus have decided to rank the best players at each position for the coming 2021 regular season, and tight end is the latest post on the list. Fortunately, they didn’t have to do much heavy lifting in the way of a debate at the top with the presence of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce at No. 1 overall.
The rankings won’t get much pushback from us, since Kelce as the overall best at his position seems like a no-brainer. Last year, Kelce put up career-high totals in receiving yards (1,416), receptions (105), touchdowns (11), yards per catch (13.5), and first downs (79), and he did it all while playing in one game less than he did the previous season because head coach Andy Reid decided to rest his starters against the L.A. Chargers in Week 17 thanks to already owning the conference’s top seed.
Kelce’s productivity last year gave him an NFL record of five consecutive seasons with 1,000 yards or more receiving, a mark he already owned and seems likely to push for another year at least. Even though Kelce will turn 32 years old during this coming season, he shows no signs of slowing down after putting up such monstrous numbers in 2020. He’s made it to six consecutive Pro Bowls and was named First-Team All-Pro for the third time in ’20 after also making it in 2016 and 2018.
The only real issue with the rankings from PFF is that they name George Kittle as a 1B to Kelce’s 1A, which might be true if Kittle were able to stay healthy. Kittle is undoubtedly an excellent talent, but it feels silly to state that taking Kelce over Kittle is really that close when Kittle was only on the field for 8 games in ’20 and caught only 48 passes.
Over the past five seasons, Kelce has averaged 95 catches, 1,229 receiving yards, and 7.6 touchdowns.