Factoid
I saw a blurb at the Sports Illustrated site the other day, in which Peter King was saying Tony Gonzalez is better now than he’s been in the past. King pointed out that Gonzalez in the last three years averaged 20 more catches per season than he did in the first 10 years of his career.
Gonzalez is 34 years old.
“With Gonzalez, it's not an exaggeration to say he's not getting older, he's getting better,” King wrote in his Monday Morning Quarterback.
But that’s only true if you believe that players who catch more passes are better. By that measure, Wes Welker and Steve Smith (of the Giants) were the best two wide receivers in the league last year.
What if you instead look at the ratio of balls caught – the number of balls caught versus the number of pass attempts that player saw? That might be a better way to look at tight ends. (I’m not saying it’s perfect, though. Guys are playing in different offenses and with different quarterbacks – they’re also running different routes).
By that measure, Gonzalez was a below-average tight end last year. He caught fewer than 62 percent of the passes thrown his way. Zach Miller, Bo Scaife, both of the Denver tight ends and both of the Washington tight ends finished with better ratios, even though they they were working with lesser quarterbacks.
COMPLETION RATES AMONG TIGHT ENDS, 2009
Listed: all tight ends who targeted at least 30 times:
No Att Pct
76 97 78.4 Heath Miller (Pitt.)
55 71 77.5 Jermichael Finley (G.B.)
94 124 75.8 Jason Witten (Dall.)
100 132 75.8 Dallas Clark (Ind.)
48 67 71.6 Jeremy Shockey (N.O.)
35 49 71.4 David Thomas (N.O.)
56 79 70.9 Visanthe Shiancoe (Min.)
29 41 70.7 Benjamin Watson (N.E.)
53 75 70.7 Todd Heap (Balt.)
79 114 69.3 Antonio Gates (S.D.)
40 58 69.0 Owen Daniels (Hou.)
76 112 67.9 Brent Celek (Phil.)
37 55 67.3 Donald Lee (G.B.)
66 100 66.0 Zach Miller (Oak.)
28 43 65.1 Daniel Graham (Den.)
29 45 64.4 Chris Cooley (Wash.)
45 70 64.3 Bo Scaife (Ten.)
48 76 63.2 Fred Davis (Wash.)
31 50 62.0 Tony Scheffler (Den.)
83 135 61.5 Tony Gonzalez (Atl.)
51 83 61.4 John Carlson (Sea.)
42 69 60.9 Kevin Boss (NYG)
77 127 60.6 Kellen Winslow (T.B.)
78 129 60.5 Vernon Davis (S.F.)
29 50 58.0 Will Heller (Det.)
31 54 57.4 Anthony Fasano (Mia.)
60 108 55.6 Greg Olsen (Chi.)
30 54 55.6 Brandon Pettigrew (Det.)
45 82 54.9 Dustin Keller (NYJ)
34 62 54.8 Randy McMichael (St.L.)
32 59 54.2 Marcedes Lewis (Jac.)
26 48 54.2 Dante Rosario (Car.)
—Ian Allan
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