In a recent blurb from CBS Sports listed the ‘supposedly’ top ten Tight Ends in the NFL the author of this speculation ranked Travis Kelce #1 and George Kittle #2. Surprisingly missing from the list was any tight end from the NFL’s Super Bowl Champions, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs boast 3 top-tier TE’s. Rob Gronkowski, O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate. Brate has had 2 500 plus yard seasons. O.J. Howard, who was injured last year, has accounted for over 400 yards in each of his 3 previous years in the NFL. You might want to know that he has only been in the NFL for 4 years. Brate and Howard shared those T.E duties for each of the last four years. Giving them close to 1000 yards out of the TE position. Those figures alone are elite. Now we throw Rob Gronkowski into the mix and BAM you have a super squad. Gronk had over 600 yards on 45 catches. His longest reception yardage was greater than Kelce’s or Kittle’s, his yards per catch ratio also. But stats aside, Rob Gronkowski has the best hands, when it comes to catching a football, in the business. There are good receivers in the NFL. There are great receivers. But none of them have hands like Gronkowski. Gronk, like Randy Moss used to, makes impossible catches look easy. His mitts are like magnets. They suck the ball in, then clamp onto it like a vise. Both Kelce and Kittles are body receivers. Gronk can go get it. If you put the ball within 10 feet of his radius. It is a catch. Gronk’s stats stack up as equal or better than with Kelce or Kittle and he has done it for longer. So how could anyone with 2 eyes leave him off the top ten list? Especially after watching him score 2 TD’s in the Super Bowl while Kelce scored none? Welcome to the world of JEALOUSY Buc fans. As Shakespeare once said.
“‘Tis much when sceptres are in children’s hands; But more when envy breeds unkind division; There comes the rain, there begins confusion’ Or to put it another way. When you are at the top the mongrels spend their time hating and nipping at your heels.”