Case Series of Hall of Fame Tight ends

With the purpose of trend-spotting, it may be an interesting exercise to look at commonalities of the greatest tight ends of all time.  Some soul-searching was required as to the definition of "all-time great", but I thought admission to the Hall of Fame would be a reasonable criteria.  Still, this may leave an active (Antonio Gates) or recently retired players (Tony Gonzalez) out, but it's still a reasonable starting point.  There have been 8 Tight-ends from the "modern era" inducted.

Ordered by year of induction (career years):

1988:  Mike Ditka (1961-1972)

1992:  John Mackey (1963-1972)

1994:  Jackie Smith (1963-1978)

1995:  Kellen Winslow (1979-1987)

1999:  Ozzie Newsome (1978-1990)

2001:  Dave Casper (1974-1983)

2007:  Charlie Sanders (1968-1977)

2011:  Shannon Sharpe (1990-2001)

Immediately, we quite obviously note that Hall of Fame Players tend to have long careers. If you're interested in the details regarding seasons, games, and career statistics to see what justifies admission to the Hall of Fame for a tight end, see this side post.  If you're comfortable taking their "greatness" for granted, read on.

Let's explore what made attributes of these inductees may help explain their hall of fame status:

First, let's compare their frames (sorted by weight to height ratio):

1.  Winslow 77 in, 251 lbs (3.26)

2.  Casper 76 in, 240 lbs (3.16)

3.  Newsome 74 in, 232 lbs (3.13)

4.  Sharpe 74 in, 230 (3.11)

5.  Smith  76 in, 235 lbs (3.09)

6.  Ditka 75 in, 228 lbs (3.04)

7.  Sanders 76 in, 230 lbs (3.03)

8.  Mackey 74 in, 224 lbs (3.02)

The critical reader may be thinking, "why weight to height ratio?"  It was chosen under the assumption that difficulty to tackle should be proportion to weight (mass) and inversely proportional to height (as shorter players have lower center of gravity).  This may be incorrect, but it helps stratify the inductees into heavy, moderate, and light build (relatively speaking). Body Mass Index (BMI) may work equally well, but I worked in biostatistics long enough to have a natural aversion to that popular, but generally poor, metric.

To help put these weight to height values in perspective, let's compare them to the average TE combine participant between 1999 and 2015:  There was a weak downward trend in Weight to Height ratio over those years (see below), so extrapolating backward in time, these 8 men may have been even further below the average for their respective times.  Regardless, it's safe to compare the mean of 3.34 lbs/in and standard deviation (0.13 lbs/in) and draw the conclusion that these men were not as solidly built as the majority of men that tend to play this position nowadays.

weight to height ratio of combine tight-end participants (1999-2015)

In the miscellaneous department, the majority of these men attempted some special teams duties at some point in their NFL careers:

1.  Mackey attempted 9 kick returns for 271 yards (avg. 30.1)

2.  Smith attempted 5 kick returns for 103 yards (avg. 20.6)

3.  Ozzie Newsome attempted 2 punt returns returns for 29 yards (avg 14.5)

4.  Ditka attempted 3 kick returns for 30 yards (avg. 10)

5.  Winslow attempted 2 kick returns for 11 yards (avg 5.5)

With the exception of Mackey and Newsome, the numbers aren't very impressive, but it does speak to the fact that these players must have had the speed and sure-handedness to be worth considering for KR/PR duty by their respective coaches.  Casper, while not on the above list, was reported to have consistently run a barefoot 4.6 second 40 yard dash for pro scouts while at Notre Dame, and a similar time has been attribute to John Mackey as well.

Related to other roles, the inductees often contributed in other positions/roles on the gridiron:

1.  Ditka also played defensive lineman and punter for the Pitt Panthers.

2.  Dave Casper played 5 different positions over his 3 year tenure at Notre Dame.

3.  Jackie Smith punted his first 3 years with the Arizona Cardinals (127 punts, averaged 39.1 yards).

4.  John Mackey played running back for two years at Syracuse, averaging 4.5 yards on 58 attempts.

5.  Charlie Sanders also converted from wide receiver to tight end as a Senior at Minnesota.

6.  Newsome was listed as a wide receiver during his time at Alabama

7.  Shannon Sharpe played WR at Savannah State (Division II) and didn't convert to TE until NFL.  He also played quarterback, running back and linebacker in high school.
8.  Kellen Winslow didn't play multiple positions, but he did attempt 4 halfback passes in his NFL career, completing only the first attempted during the playoffs of 1980 for a gain of 28 yards.

As the tight end position is a hybrid position that requires both blocking and passing, it's not surprising that these men would be serviceable at multiple positions and prove to be dual or tri-athletes in college or high school:

1.  Mike Ditka - Basketball (forward), Baseball (outfield), intramural wrestling at Pittsburgh.

2.  John Mackey - Basketball (forward), track (events unknown) at Syracuse.

3.  Jackie Smith - Track (hurdles) at Northwest Louisiana.

4.  Charlie Sanders - Basketball (forward) at the University of Minnesota.

5.  Shannon Sharpe - Basketball (39.5" vertical), track and field (jumping/throwing) at Savannah St.
6.   Dave Casper played football, basketball, and golf in high school.
7.  Newsome also played basketball and baseball in high school
8.  Kellen Winslow played chess in high school until recruited to the football team his senior year,

To summarize, these 8 inductees were generally durable, sure handed, and surprisingly athletic for their size.  They also appeared to possess extraordinary speed/agility for their size (fast 40 times reported and/or ran track).  A couple of these men, namely Sanders and Sharpe, were known to have supreme jumping ability.  Some were late converts to football or the tight end position and could play a variety of positions, with special teams contributions giving them the time to learn a new position.

In the next post, I hope to explore these trends more quantitatively in a cross-section of starting NFL tight ends to see if we can spot any correlation/association between these factors and NFL success.