Pitta/Dickson vs. Gronk/Hernandez

[BillickFan]

Re: The greatest TE of all time? IMO Gronk cant hold a candle to Tony Gonzalez.

John Mackey might not be remembered by everyone on this board, but that guy was Tony Gonzalez/Gronk/Vernon combo package way before the league was ready for it.

[BillickFan]

Did either of you even read what the stats were that I jsut posted there?? I think it flew over your head. ON a PER PASS basis, Smith and Kaepernick were superior to Brady last year, better completion percentage, more yards per attempt. HOWEVER, when Brady was throwing in Gronk's direction, hsi stats BALLOONED, while SF's QB's only got a slight rise from throing to VD. How can you pssibly say this says NOTHING? YOu have to be willfully ignorant at this poitn if you dont think that means that Gronk is making Brady look better then he otherwise would have been last year. THAT IS EXACTLY what that says.

Did Brady's stats balloon when throwing to Gronk because he throws deep much more than Smith/Kaepernick? I don't know the numbers, but Alex's completion % would be relatively constant no matter who the target is b/c he didn't throw many deep balls which have a crazy low completion %. Brady would chuck it deep at low % more often. That could explain the % going up when targeting Gronk. Lots of variables other than Gronk being the football messiah.

Can't help the club from the cold tub........

[wickedsolo]

John Mackey might not be remembered by everyone on this board, but that guy was Tony Gonzalez/Gronk/Vernon combo package way before the league was ready for it.

I am too young to have ever watched Mackey in his glory days, but I am aware of how good of a player he was. At that point of time, the TE just wasn't the receiving entity that it is today.

Mackey could probably teach every TE in the league right now a thing or two about blocking though.

[Paintballguy]

Well I'd say any TE that gets on the field is better than Hernandez now because it's hard to get out of jail to play.

[jonboy79]

Did Brady's stats balloon when throwing to Gronk because he throws deep much more than Smith/Kaepernick? I don't know the numbers, but Alex's completion % would be relatively constant no matter who the target is b/c he didn't throw many deep balls which have a crazy low completion %. Brady would chuck it deep at low % more often. That could explain the % going up when targeting Gronk. Lots of variables other than Gronk being the football messiah.

Can't help the club from the cold tub........

His yards per attempt was 2.5 yards better to Gronk than with the team as a whole, so he was actually throwing deep"er" to Gronk then to his average pass. So while throwing deeper, his percentage STILL grew...

[Trackmaster]

For Hernandez's pick, they got 2 and 1/2 years of injury free service, and a whole bunch of cap mess and embarrassment. And yet, it was still a much better than anything we did that year except for Pitta.