2013 Pro Football Hall of Fame Finalists

I personally disagree but I uderstand the argument, which is why I think he has work to do to be a lock.

It's my opinion Dallas is a 4-5 win team the past few years without Witten, and I don't blame him for a host of crappy defenses and a QB that has a penchant for throwing key interceptions.

 

Witten is a great tight end. I don't know how that can even be debated.

Hall of Famer? He needs several more good to great seasons.

On no level is he a lock. Tight end is another position where if you're not the best TE in the game for the better part of a decade, I don't think you get in. Sharpe fits that. Gonzalez fits that.

Sharpe waited three years. I think Gonzalez will get in on the first ballot.

 

Anyone know if Len Hauss ever received significant consideration?

 

I would agree on Gonzalez, but I thought Sharpe was a first-ballot guy since he held all the tight end records when he retired and has three Super Bowl Rings.

It wouldn't shock me if they made Gonzalez wait. But if he a first-ballot guy, then it would stand to reason Gates would have to wait until at least year three, maybe year four, and that would make Witten a year seven or eight guy.

 

I think you can make a reasonable argument Tony Gonzalez was only the best tight end in the NFL for five years, from 1999, when he had his first elite season right as Shannon Sharpe went down with an injury only to never regain truly elite form, through 2003, with Antonio Gates usurping the title after that for a seven-year stretch.

Gates hasn't had a better career than Gonzalez at this point. He probably won't. But I do think he had a better prime and was much harder to match up with. Gates was stronger, faster and more athletic than Gonzalez, which is saying a lot. I can't even fathom that you made the statement Witten was better than Gates. That just seems insane.

 

If the position were wide receiver and was almost exclusively about receiving, Gates has an argument as best ever. Blocking is more than a small part of the tight end job description that most hall voters ignore. Witten is a much better blocker than either Gates or Gonzalez. Best all around tight end of his era if you include blocking. Not that it helps his HOF case, because it probably does not.

 

Sharpe wasn't a very good blocker. To be fair though, with that offensive line he played on in Denver, they didn't need him to be.

Witten is a very good blocker. I had always heard that Gonzalez was underrated as a blocker, but obviously, it was overshadowed by his skills as a receiver.

 

For that matter, what has Gates or Gonzalez ever won?

 

It's bad enough some hold QB's to the ridiculous rings standard but now we are holding tight ends to this?

 

The Chargers are 83-57 when Antonio Gates plays.

 

We are seeing one of the most common mistakes in analysis of players in all sports here -- the mistaken conclusion that if a team doesn't achieve success (and success is now defined only as championships), then one of its players can't have top-level individual value. This ignores the fact teams can always get worse. You can stand the equation on its head and ask, if the Cowboys didn't have Witten, what would their record be? Without his comfort target, Romo would REALLY suck, etc., etc.

 

I was merely pointing out the absurdity of that line of thinking