This one should be quite competitive!
In our continuing series on the Packers All-Quarter Century Team, let’s take a look at the big boy pass catchers. Those who straddle the line between receiver and, uhm, line. The line, line. It’s tight end time!
The Packers have quite the list of candidates for tight end this century. We have reliable security blankets, elite blockers, big-play specialists, well-loved internet characters, and Donald Lee. You could make the case for several of these guys, so let’s get to it!
Tight Ends Nominees
Note: All stats shown are as a member of the Green Bay Packers only, from the 2000 through 2024 seasons only.
Bubba Franks (2000-2008)
3x Pro Bowl
Regular season stats: 122 games, 262 receptions, 2347 yards, 32 touchdowns, 64.7% Catch&, 9 Y/R
Postseason stats: 8 games, 12 catches, 149 yards, 3 TDs, 54.5% Catch%, 12.4 Y/R
How you feel about Bubba is going to depend heavily on how you value receiving touchdowns. Since the merger, there are only 17 players in NFL history who scored a touchdown on a higher percentage of their total receptions than Franks, which is something to be sure. BUT, Franks’ 64.7% catch percentage isn’t exactly the mark of some surehanded wunderkind. I mean, Donald Lee caught almost 70% of his targets and he was running much more difficult routes. There is the “Favre throwing as hard as he can” factor of course, and Bubba was on the receiving end of a fair number of those as a trusted tight-window target, but also, maybe if he would have been a bit more open?
Then again, Bubba, as his name would suggest, was also an excellent blocker (you don’t get to be a Bubba by hauling in 30-yard bombs down the seam), and perhaps it’s enough to simply note that the excellent blocker of the early 2000s was also a phenom around the end zone, and as a 3-time pro bowler, was recognized as such by his peers.
Donald Lee (2005-2010)
Regular season stats: 49 games, 178 receptions, 1655 yards, 17 TDs, 69.8% Catch%, 9.7 Y/R
Postseason stats: 7 games, 5 receptions, 51 yards, 1 TDs, 50% Catch%, 10.1 Y/R
Hey, those stats aren’t bad! Lee’s 2007 season is actually quite impressive, though I have to confess, I’m surprised that he only averaged 9.7 Y/R as a Packer. My memory of Lee is of a true “big receiver” type stretching the field, and not getting as many opportunities as I thought he should, but that Y/R number and the 17 TDs resemble more of a half-Bubba than a proto-Finley. Of course, Donald also had the misfortune of playing his entire Packer career in the late-Favre/early Rodgers era without really enjoying the peak of either player.
Lee had solid hands, a knack for finding the end zone, and may be a bit underrated historically as a receiver. Unfortunately, my pining for him to be on the field more was likely the result of substandard blocking, and even catch-first TEs need to be able to block a little.
Jermichael Finley (2008-2013)
Regular season stats: 70 games played, 223 receptions, 2785 yards, 20 TDs, 69% Catch%, 12.5 Y/R
Postseason stats: 4 games played, 15 receptions, 241 yards, 0 TDs, 57.7% Catch%, 16.1 Y/R
With Finley, let’s not focus on what could have been, and instead celebrate what was. While the man was injured frequently during his career and was forced into retirement early due to a spinal cord injury, he was great when he was on the field.
The 2011 Packers were one of the best offenses to ever play, and the only Packers to out-target the tight end on that team were Greg Jennings (101) and Jordy Nelson (96). Finley was targeted 92 times, scored 8 touchdowns (also third to Jennings and Nelson), and was more productive than Donald Driver, James Jones, and Randall Cobb.
Finley was a matchup nightmare because linebackers just couldn’t handle him, and while he was never a great blocker, it almost didn’t matter, because if you left a player on the field who could get around Finley the blocker, Finley the receiver would burn you for 40 yards. The Packers have attempted to bring in a new version of Finley a few times with Jared Cook and Luke Musgrave serving as prominent examples, and if you saw just how good the offense was with him, you understand why. In theory tight ends should be well-rounded, multi-faceted players, but there’s something to be said for a guy who excels in just one of those key aspects. In the ill-fated playoff game against the Cardinals at the end of the 2009 season, Finley caught 6 balls for 159 yards.
Andrew Quarless (2010-2015)
Regular season stats: 60 games, 89 receptions, 940 yards, 6 TDs, 63.1% Catch%, 10.6 Y/R
Postseason stats: 8 games, 10 receptions, 85 yards, 1 TDs, 62.5% Catch%, 8.5 Y/R
If you want to vote for Quarless for accidentally breaking Joe Paterno’s leg in 2006, I’m fine with that. Unfortunately, Quarless never quite lived up to the hype, and as his career largely overlapped with Finley, his opportunities were highly dependent on Finley’s availability, and his own, as he was injured a fair amount.
Quarless was, to his credit, a well-above-average blocker, and a pretty nifty receiver, and was willing to perform in either role as needed, but he also could never quite put it all together.
Tom Crabtree (2010-2013)
Regular season stats: 53 games, 22 receptions, 323 yards, 5 TDs, 64.7% Catch%, 14.7 Y/R
Postseason stats: 7 games, 3 receptions, 18 yards, 1 TD, 42% Catch%, 6 Y/R
Earlier this week I wrote about Jayden Reed’s 70-yard touchdown catch against the Eagles in Brazil last year, the longest of his career. Perhaps someday, Jayden will catch a touchdown pass longer than Crabtree’s 72-yarder against the Cardinals in 2012.
Crabtree will always be remembered as a fun player who, in addition to this big play, also once caught a fake field goal touchdown from Tim Masthay against the Bears. By all accounts, Crabtree is an entertaining personality, likely a solid locker room presence, and he was always a willing special teamer who made the most of his offensive opportunities when they arose.
Crabtree is fun, and if you want to vote for fun, hey, go for it.
Richard Rodgers (2014-2017)
Regular season stats: 24 games, 120 receptions, 1166 yards, 13 TDs, 66.3% Catch%, 9.7 Y/R
Postseason stats: 7 games, 13 receptions, 138 yards, 2 TDs, 65% Catch%, 10.6 Y/R
The man who caught the famous Rodgers Hail Mary to defeat the Lions, mostly because he was the last one down the field on account of being incredibly slow, actually wound up playing more for non-Packer teams than he did for the Green and Gold. He peaked in 2015 with a Franksian 510-yard, 8 TD performance, while averaging 8.8 yards per reception, and served admirably as the traditional “block-first, run slow and catch TDs second” archetype that the Packers so love.
Rodgers was perfectly fine in the McCarthy offense and will always be a part of one of the greatest highlights in team history.
Jared Cook (2016)
Regular season stats: 10 games, 30 receptions, 377 yards, 1 TD, 58.8% Catch%, 12.6 Y/R
Postseason stats: 3 games, 18 receptions, 229 yards, 2 TDs, 56.3% Catch%, 12.7 Y/R
It might seem ridiculous to vote for Cook just based on the fact that he was only here for one season, and he was hurt for most of it. Then again, when you check out the playoff stats compared to the regular season stats and remember just how important he was to a deep Packer playoff run, including his amazing sideline catch against Dallas, and you can make a decent case just based on playoff leverage. He was even one of the better performers in their eventual loss to Atlanta.
In some ways the Packers were looking for a Jared Cook for the entire post-Finley era and have been looking for another one since Cook moved on (though that search is likely over). He is one of the best pure receiving tight ends that the franchise has ever had, they just didn’t have him for very long.
Marcedes Lewis (2018-2022)
Regular season stats: 81 games, 57 receptions, 582 yards, 6 TDs, 76% Catch%, 10.2 Y/R Postseason stats: 5 games, 6 receptions, 42 yards, 0 TDs, 100% Catch%, 7 Y/R
Lewis is probably a decent comp for Bubba actually, and over the course of his storied 19-year career, he has debatably been the best blocking tight end in football, while still able to contribute in the passing game when called upon to do so. His 10.2 Y/R isn’t even terrible for a blocking TE (Bubba was a flat 9), especially given his reputation as the equivalent of an extra tackle.
The issue with Lewis is simply that he wasn’t here very long, and it was well after his Jacksonville prime. We got old man Lewis, who was still very good, but more of a gimmick/leakout guy who was REALLY just there to block, versus the dual threat he was early in his career. On the 2010 David Garrard-led Jaguars, Lewis had 700 yards and 10 TDs. The man played for some awful teams in Jacksonville, and had he instead gotten to play with the Favre/Rodgers combo for his prime, there’s a good chance he looks like more of a Turbo-Franks in retrospect. But for our purposes, we have five seasons of blocking excellence, and a great locker-room presence.
Tucker Kraft (2023-2024)
Regular season stats: 34 games, 81 receptions, 1062 yards, 9 TDs, 73.6% Catch%, 13.1 Y/R
Postseason stats: 3 games, 10 receptions, 50 yards, 1 TDs, 71.4% Catch%, 5 Y/R
While it’s premature to have Kraft on this list, I won’t blame anyone who votes for him because I suspect three years from now, he will be the obvious choice. Only Marcedes caught a higher percentage of targets, only Tom Crabtree has a higher yards per catch number than Kraft, and while everyone else on this list gives something away as a blocker or as a receiver, or simply due to health, Kraft is the total package. While not the blocking phenom that Lewis or Franks were, he’s far better than most on the list while also being maybe the best receiver? Whenever I graph out similarity scores for Kraft, the only other names that really show up are George Kittle and Travis Kelce, and while Jermichael Finley was a star when healthy, he never really had a season better than Kraft’s 2024 as a receiver (though his 2011 is close, although with worse blocking).
The sample size with Kraft is small, but so far, he looks like an absolute star, and I’m fine with anyone who wants to bet on the future here.