You'll often get a debate when it comes to the subject of the best tight end in football. San Francisco 49ers fans will be quick to vote for All-Pro George Kittle. Kansas City Chiefs fans will side with Travis Kelce.
There's no real bad answer with those choices. Kelce has played much longer, and his resume is superb. The six-time Pro Bowler has been doing it for eight years and has racked up over 1,000 receiving yards in each of the past five seasons, including a tight-end record of 1,416 receiving yards last season. That record broke the one set by the 27-year-old Kittle just two years earlier.
Kittle has two seasons with over 1,000 receiving yards on his resume. He was limited to eight games last season but still recorded 634 yards. Kittle is seen as the better overall tight end, as he is just as good of a blocker as he is a receiver, but he obviously doesn't yet have the illustrious resume that Kelce has.
Again, while there is no wrong answer, Pro Football Focus went ahead and ranked the NFL tight ends anyway. In the top spot is Kelce, but the analytics site acknowledges that it could have gone either way.
"It's a 1a/1b situation at the top of the position with Kelce and Kittle," wrote Ben Linsey. "Kelce earns the top spot heading into the 2021 season off the back of another dominant showing this past season, paired with an injury-limited campaign for Kittle. ... [Kelce's] knack for getting open paired with that after-the-catch ability makes him the most dangerous receiving threat at the tight end position the league has to offer right now."
Clearly, Kittle's limited playing time last season impacted his ranking. You have to wonder if he would have been the undisputed top tight end had he lasted 16 games.
"Kittle still imposed his will as both a receiver and blocker when on the field in 2020," wrote Linsey. "The issue was that he was only on the field for eight games, missing significant time with a broken bone in his foot.
"Since 2018, Kittle is the highest-graded tight end in the NFL (93.4) on the back of the highest receiving grade at the position (93.7) and third-highest run-blocking grade (78.0). Unlike Kelce, the majority of his damage comes inline, where Kyle Shanahan does as good of a job as any coach in the NFL at creating mismatches in coverage. Kittle's 1,811 receiving yards when lined up inline since 2018 are over 500 more than any other tight end."
What's interesting about the ranking is that rookie Kyle Pitts of the Atlanta Falcons is listed at No. 4.
"This may be early for a player who has yet to take an NFL snap, but it's a reflection of the caliber of prospect Pitts is coming out of Florida. He's just different," Linsey explained.
Click here to view Linsey's entire ranking over at Pro Football Focus.
