Last week I looked at ages for peak production among wide receivers and running backs. I concluded that the most popular age for big seasons and career-best numbers were when said players were 25-26 years old. And I noted that with wide receivers, there’s not much dropoff to ages 27-29, while with running backs, the next-best level of years is on the younger side (23-24 years old). Today I’m turning the focus on tight ends.

One school of thought is that with tight ends, it takes a little longer to get going. Unlike wide receivers, they must learn blocking assignments as well as receiving routes. This shows in the numbers. Over the last 20 years, only one of the top 100 seasons by a tight end was put together by a rookie tight end. That was Rob Gronkowski (who caught only 42 passes that year but showed up big in the red zone, with 10 TDs).

(Note: for this study, I’m using 6 points for touchdowns and 1 for every 10 yards as the scoring system.)

Second-year tight ends also haven’t been great – just 9 guys.

It’s the third and fourth years that have the most top-100 tight ends, with the fifth year just behind. I see 14, 14 and 13 players in those age brackets. Then 10 and 11 players for the next two groups before it starts dropping off.

If you want to look at ages (as of opening day) rather than seasons, it looks like this …

TOP-100 TIGHT ENDS SINCE 1995
AgesNo
21-year-olds2
22-year-olds3
23-year-olds4
24-year-olds10
25-year-olds15
26-year-olds15
27-year-olds11
28-year-olds8
29-year-olds10
30-year-olds7
31-year-olds5
32-year-olds2
33-year-olds3
34-year-olds1
35-year-olds2
36-year-olds1
37-year-olds1

(For the old guys, that’s all Tony Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe.)

Here be the best tight ends of the last 20 years.

TOP 50 TIGHT ENDS OF THE LAST 20 YEARS
YearPlayerAgeYrNoYardsTD
2011Rob Gronkowski222901,32718
2013Jimmy Graham264861,21516
2011Jimmy Graham242991,31011
2014Rob Gronkowski255821,12412
2009Vernon Davis2547896513
2004Antonio Gates2428196413
2000Tony Gonzalez244931,2039
2009Dallas Clark3071001,10610
2005Antonio Gates253891,10110
2004Tony Gonzalez2881021,2587
1996Shannon Sharpe287801,06210
2008Tony Gonzalez3212961,05810
2009Antonio Gates297791,1578
2013Vernon Davis2985285013
2007Jason Witten255961,1457
2010Jason Witten288941,0029
1999Wesley Walls33116382212
2014Antonio Gates34126982112
2007Antonio Gates275759849
2012Jimmy Graham253859829
2003Tony Gonzalez2777191610
1999Tony Gonzalez2337684911
2013Julius Thomas2536578812
2014Jimmy Graham2758588910
2007Tony Gonzalez3111991,1725
2006Antonio Gates264719249
2009Brent Celek243769718
2012Rob Gronkowski2335579011
2007Kellen Winslow244821,1065
2012Tony Gonzalez3616939308
2010Antonio Gates3085078210
1998Shannon Sharpe3096476810
2014Greg Olsen298841,0086
2004Jason Witten222879806
2013Tony Gonzalez3717838598
2010Vernon Davis265569147
2013Jordan Cameron253809177
2013Jason Witten3111738518
2005Jeremy Shockey254658917
2011Aaron Hernandez212799107
2012Heath Miller298718168
2014Martellus Bennett277909166
1996Wesley Walls3086171310
1997Shannon Sharpe298721,1073
2010Marcedes Lewis2655870010
2001Tony Gonzalez255739176
2011Tony Gonzalez3515808757
2007Chris Cooley254667868
2007Dallas Clark2855861611
1995Ben Coates265849156