As our Fantasy Football Yesterday coverage rolls along, we continue to recap the best and worst of the CBS Sports era of Fantasy football, from 1997 through today. This time period covers the explosion of the NFL as a product, something in which Fantasy football had no small part. Some time between the monstrous running back seasons of the early 2000s and the passing revolution over the past decade, Fantasy football went mainstream, and its popularity has driven excitement around the league.

We move on to the best of the best at tight end as we continue crowning the Mount Rushmores for each position. Tight end is a position where it's challenging to make an impact, and the players who have are relatively easy to remember. Heading into 2020, we have two clear stars in Travis Kelce and George Kittle, and each has proven worthy of being an early-round pick in Fantasy drafts. Both received votes for our Mount Rushmore, but neither made the final cut, with Kelce falling short in a hotly contested battle for the fourth and final spot. 

When they hang their cleats up, both Kelce and Kittle may have a case for the Mount Rushmore of the position. But to get there, they'll have to squeeze out one of these four greats. 

mt-rushmore-tightends.jpg

To determine this group, our panel each ranked six tight ends. Here are our rankers:

  • Jamey Eisenberg
  • Dave Richard
  • Heath Cummings
  • Adam Aizer
  • Chris Towers
  • Ben Schragger
  • Ben Gretch

Rob Gronkowski leads our final tally as one of the few tight ends over the past 23 years who could be considered in the first few rounds of drafts year in and year out. Gronkowski's early career — particularly the 38 touchdowns he caught across 43 games in his first three seasons — established him as an elite option at the position, even as injuries limited his ability to stay on the field. Gronk's second season, in 2011, is the gold standard at the position, the only example of a tight end going over 20 PPR points per game. 

Though that 2011 season was the last time Gronk played 16 games, five of our seven rankers picked Gronkowski atop their personal Mount Rushmores. Chris Towers and Adam Aizer had a different name, though, and it's hard to argue with Tony Gonzalez's longevity. Spanning a time where tight end production was even more scarce, Gonzalez missed just two games across 17 seasons. Gonzalez caught at least 70 balls 14 times, went over 800 yards 13 times and scored at least five touchdowns 14 times. Speaking of his career this way undersells his peak production, though — five 90-catch seasons, four times over 1,000 yards and three years with double-digit scores is just as impressive. 

Gronkowski and Gonzalez were the clear top two on our collective Mount Rushmore, while the final three spots were contested by Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates and Kelce. Each of our drafters had the same top five at the position, with Jason Witten edging Kittle for more sixth-place votes as the only others to be considered. 

Graham's argument for a place on the consensus Rushmore is one for peak production — his 2011 and 2013 seasons rank second and fourth at the position all time, while his 2012 and 2014 are also top-30 seasons. Of course, after his five-year stretch with the Saints, Graham has been much less of a difference-maker at the position in the later part of his career. Graham still finished third, where four of our rankers had him, while Adam put him ahead of Gronkowski in second and Chris had him fifth. 

That left Gates and Kelce, and the final spot was extremely close. Three of our rankers — Jamey Eisenberg, Ben Schragger and Adam Aizer — saw Kelce's unfinished but dominant career as more worthy of a spot than Gates'. Kelce's 103-1,336-10 line in 2018 is the third best all time at the position, while each of his past four seasons stretching into 2019 are among the top-35 PPR seasons of the past two-plus decades. 

But Gates was of course no slouch, and his peak came at a time when the position was much more difficult to fill. In the span we looked at, from 1997 to the present, many of the biggest recorded tight end seasons have come since Gronkowski and Graham burst on the scene after 2010. What Gates did during the 2000s — including a stretch from 2004 to 2010 where he caught at least eight touchdowns every season — made him a legitimate Fantasy star, and the only sustained threat to Gonzalez as the most valuable tight end of that era. That was enough for both Heath Cummings and Chris Towers to rank Gates ahead of even Graham at third overall on their personal lists, and enough for Gates to finish as the fourth and final member of our Mount Rushmore.

Full results

Jamey Eisenberg

  1. Rob Gronkowski
  2. Tony Gonzalez
  3. Jimmy Graham
  4. Travis Kelce
  5. Antonio Gates
  6. George Kittle

Dave Richard

  1. Rob Gronkowski
  2. Tony Gonzalez
  3. Jimmy Graham
  4. Antonio Gates
  5. Travis Kelce
  6. George Kittle

Heath Cummings

  1. Rob Gronkowski
  2. Tony Gonzalez
  3. Antonio Gates
  4. Jimmy Graham
  5. Travis Kelce
  6. Jason Witten

Adam Aizer

  1. Tony Gronzalez
  2. Jimmy Graham
  3. Rob Gronkowski
  4. Travis Kelce
  5. Antonio Gates
  6. Jason Witten

Chris Towers

  1. Tony Gonzalez
  2. Rob Gronkowski
  3. Antonio Gates
  4. Travis Kelce
  5. Jimmy Graham
  6. Jason Witten

Ben Schragger

  1. Rob Gronkowski
  2. Tony Gonzalez
  3. Jimmy Graham
  4. Travis Kelce
  5. Antonio Gates
  6. Jason Witten

Ben Gretch

  1. Rob Gronkowski
  2. Tony Gonzalez
  3. Jimmy Graham
  4. Antonio Gates
  5. Travis Kelce
  6. Jason Witten