Controversy
Superstar
Prime Gronk is the Goat TE
Idk how it's even a debate
Is Travis Kelce an all time great Tight End?
- Thread starter Street Knowledge
- Start date
Idk how it's even a debate
I prefer Gronk also but factoring in blocking to me is kind of ridiculous. If you're winning games by racking up yardage and TDs and your QB isn't getting hit that much then who cares about blocking
Devil Plisken…CMS
Veteran
Sure
Prime Gronk is the Goat TE
Agreed. You have to scheme your entire defense around stopping him and he basically couldn't be stopped in single coverage which opens it up for everybody else like Edelman and guys like that.
I feel that Kelce is great but not "we need to base our entire defense around stopping him" great. Hill is that guy, if anything.
yseJ
Empire strikes back
gronk is a complete all-around TE and might be the GOAT if he had more longevity
prolly the best all-around TE ever
Controversy
Superstar
You care about blocking when you face fierce pass rushers in the playoffs and your QB is throwing a quarter second earlier than the play is designed to.
Pass blocking & run blocking, Gronk is godly for a TE. That's in addition to being a receiving threat. These split motion TEs aren't on Gronk's level
feelosofer
#ninergang
Yes, he has a good amount of career left and he's already a borderline top 10 of all time now. His only point of contention is, he doesn't really block and those are things that Gronk and even Kittle now are elite at.
Kelce's every bit the matchup nightmare Gronk was as a pass catcher, no one's stopping him with single coverage.
duckbutta
eienaar van mans
gronk is a complete all-around TE and might be the GOAT if he had more longevity
prolly the best all-around TE ever
Longevity is part of greatness. It's actually the most difficult part of greatness.
In order for you to get in the 10,000 yard 1,000 catch club, that means you got to play at an all pro level for around a decade. That means you can't have 3 good years and then be average. You can't have 6 good years and then be average. You got to have 8 to 10 GREAT years in a row. You know why Gronk isn't close to the 1000 / 10000 club ? Cause he not good enough at football to be in that club.
That's the difference between somebody like Gronk and Witten, one guy who is in the 1000 / 10000 club and one guy who isn't. Gronk can give you the occasional monster year like 2014. He also going to get hurt alot and give you a year like 2016 where he don't even catch 40 passes. Between 2004 and 2017, you know how many seasons Witten didn't play in all 16 regular season games and catch AT LEAST 60 passes every season? fukking NONE. Even old washed up I can't run and I'm utter trash Jason Witten was still putting up 63 for 600 yards and 5 touchdowns.
You say Gronk "prolly the best all around TE ever". Not possible when there is a guy who plays the same position and has over 1200 catches and Gronk don't even have 600.
The only people putting Gronk over Kelce are people who started watching football 5 minutes ago, people from new england, or people who get to wrapped up and how "dominant" gronk looked when he played. It's weird to me that is the go to argument for gronks greatness is that he looked "dominant". I mean that's all nice and cool that gronk jumped up in between two defenders and caught a 40 yard touchdown pass. Kelce did the same thing except his route running is so impeccable and he is so fast he got behind the safety and didn't have to jump over two people to catch the pass. That's nice and cool that gronk caught a 10 yard slant and then ran over a safety and scored a 30 yard touchdown and spiked the ball real hard. Kelce caught the same slant its just that he is so much faster than the safety he just ran away from him so he never had to run him over. When I see the gronk arguments I don't ever see anybody talk about how many catches gronk had...I guess cause there are tight ends that literally have twice as many. Nobody talks about how many yards he had...I guess cause their are tight ends who have literally twice as many. Nobody talks about how many 60 or 70 or 80 catch season he put together in a row...I guess its cause Gronk in his career aint NEVER had a 3 year stretch where he caught at least 60 passes and somebody like Witten had 13 years in a row where he caught at least that many.
If I take the 3 best years of Gronk and Kelce careers, Kelce has more catches and yards, but Gronk has more touchdowns. If I take the 3 worst years of their careers, Kelce has more catches, yards, and touchdowns. Kelce has more 1000 yard season in a row than Gronk has 1000 yard seasons period. It's weird to me that Gronk gets this reputation for being "dominant" when their are tight ends who put up better numbers than him for longer stretches than him. If Gronk is :dominant" then what word would be used to describe Kelce who's best season is more productive than Gronks, worst season is more productive than gronks, and average season is more productive than gronks, which is why Kelce already has more catches than Gronk WHILE being in the nfl for 2 less years than Gronk.
Also where do people get this shyt from that Travis Kelce can't block ? I wouldn't call him a dominant blocker but he is good enough to get the job done. I aint never seen KC be like "we can't run the ball to Kelce side cause he is bad at blocking."
yseJ
Empire strikes back
part of being the best TE ever is actually blocking, because that's literally half of what a TE needs to do. Gronk is one of the most dominant TE blockers. Kelce isnt even at Tony G's level, and Tony G gets a pass largely because he was so prolific as a pass catcher.
this is a garbage take. people who know football and who know the value of blocking rave about gronk.
Slim
Superstar
Absolutely.
And Gronk being the GOAT TE doesn't mean Kelce isn't an ATG
And Gronk being the GOAT TE doesn't mean Kelce isn't an ATG
I knew this was going to be a Witten post.
Gronk>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Witten.
It's not even debatable. You talk about the 1000/10,000 club like that makes a difference here. Gronk has more TD's than Witten is FAR few games.
.A crippled Gronk has had at least four seasons better than Witten's best season.
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.I've already said Kelce is an all-time great, but this is not a good post from you. You're smarter than this.
Are you telling me it's kind of ridiculous to factor in running for Lamar Jackson as well?
If we go back to the 2018 season, Gronk was dominant in the run game against the Chargers, then became a passing threat in the Chiefs and Rams games. Sony Michel had a massive day in part to Gronk and his blocking. You don't have to carry an extra OL on the team when you have him, and when he's out there, you don't know if it's a run or a pass, unlike when other TE's are there.
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