Fifth Anniversary Special: Best and Worst TE Seasons, 95-07

What on earth would possess you to throw Mark Bruener 35 passes in a season? He's good at what he does, but catching footballs ain't it.

I don’t know which is stranger:

* Marcus Pollard, who is known for dropping passes, had a catch rate of 80 percent last year.
* Marcus Pollard, who is known for dropping passes, still managed a catch rate of 80 percent at the advanced age of 35.
* Marcus Pollard signed with the Patriots with the offseason, and couldn’t make the team even though he had managed a 25.8% DVOA and a catch rate of 80 percent one year earlier at the age of 35.

What is odd about that? Say his "basic catch %" is 50%. Its not out of the realm of possibility for him to put up a 28/35 like he did last year, and then still look like the 50% guy he is in practice where you have many more reps...

To be fair to Stephen Alexander, his last few years he was the blocking TE in Denver while Putzier, etc. served as the receiving TE... still, pretty darn awful for a guy who di have a "receiving" reputation coming out of Detroit.

should i assume dallas clark is a receiver for these calculations, or is he just a mediocre tight end? as a colts fan it's hard for me to get perspective on his career.

I'm guessing Clark's career year in 2007 is being counted as a WR season. Is there any quick way to tell us what his DVOA/DYAR would be if you kept him as a TE.

Re 4: He's 7th on the career DYAR per season. So a very good but not great TE so far.

Re #4
Dallas Clark is listed on the top DYAR/season, between Wesley Walls and Chris Cooley.

It's nice to see some real sanity atop the DVOA Era leaderboards. The top 4 are the top 4, and should be the top 4, though subjectively to me it's more a Top 3, a 4th (Witten), then the rest.

Mark Chmura's demise hurt the Pack and Favre more than is acknowledged.

Some comments on the mid-90s stats:

- DYAR isn't going to resolve the perennial Emmitt/Barry argument. Sanders' consistently mediocre success rate doesn't lower his value according to your measurements. The only certainty: Barry was a better receiver, though neither was up to much.

- The mid-90s were a strange era for QBs. Vinny! Scott Mitchell! Paul Justin! And in 1995, seven of the top eight QBs by DYAR were in the NFC...

- DYAR can finally lay to rest the myth of Andre Rison: Packers' Savior, 1996. Sure, he did better in the postseason. Sure, he caught a nice TD in the superbowl. But Ron Wolf was right not to sign him the following season. Don Beebe? That's another matter.

- William Henderson has to have the best catch percentages and one of the best career DVOAs for a back. Great guy too, apparently.

Interesting Boo Williams made the list. He was a guy the Saints converted from a college WR to TE. When he was on the field in his rookie year, he looked like a guy who was going to be a really good catching TE. For whatever reason (perhaps he gained too much weight trying to "bulk up"?), he never played well after that. I had no idea he was worthy of this list, however.

Dudley was so good that if we raise our minimum to 50 passes, he still ends up with the highest DVOA. However, most of the list is different.

You're not adding any anyone to the list when you raise your minimum, just removing people, so of course he'll still be on top if he meets the new minimum. Now if you gave us the 50 pass list first, and then gave us the 25 pass list (so more people are eligible for the 2nd list), you could be impressed he remains.

It's not really a surprise that nobody remembers Wesley Walls, as his value over replacement TE is fairly small. With a few HOF exceptions, tight ends just don't have all that much value in the receiving game compared to other positions.

There's a fairly obvious tradeoff between usage and catch rate at the TE. The first few passes that get thrown to a tight end are on designed plays or plays where he's wide open and has an easy catch. As the TE becomes a bigger part of the offense, the passes that get thrown towards him are more difficult to catch. (Remember that plays don't have to go towards the tight end: the alternative is to throw passes to the running back or wide receiver.) This sort of explains what's going on with the 3rd down slot receiver effect.

tl, dr; It's easier to put up a good catch rate/DVOA with 4 easy passes per game than with 4 easy passes and 5 somewhat more difficult passes per game.

What isn't mentioned about Franks 2006 season is that he was a terrible BLOCKER as well. Franks had as bad a season as a guy can have and stay in the league. Frankly, I don't think Bubba has deserved a roster spot since 2005 but that's me talking.

Tryone Davis being listed just slays me. Davis was this guy the Packers thought would cause problems because he could run really well for a big man. So they would split him out wide in a faux receiver mode. But most of the time he either dropped passes or got hurt. But time after time during training camp(s) you would read the obligatory "Davis a matchup issue for defenses" article.

Chmura was a heckuva player. Somehow managed to get separation despite limited speed and was also a blocker.

You’re not adding any anyone to the list when you raise your minimum, just removing people, so of course he’ll still be on top if he meets the new minimum.

The interesting part is that Dudley is still there, not that he's still on top.

No surprise that no one remembers Wesley Walls. NFL does a dang fine job at marketing the latest players as the best players ever, and the latest teams as the best teams ever!

Great series Aaron. But why stop there? What about worst Fullbacks? H-Backs?

Fullbacks would be nice.

I bet I can come up the the list of the top recieving Fullbacks:

Larry Centers

and, ummm.... that's all I got.

Give Heath Evans a couple more years, and he might make a list...

1 - Think of the other receiving options for the 1999 Steelers: second-year man Hines Ward, just getting into the passing game; no. 1 draft pick Troy Edwards, who actually had a pretty decent year and tied with Ward at 61 catches, but was no great shakes; and guys like Courtney Hawkins, Bobby Shaw, and Will Blackwell. All of this while catching passes from the dynamic duo of Stewart and Tomczak.

While Howard Cross was dull as dirt and couldn't catch a cold, let's not forget that he played 13 years as essentially a 6th offensive lineman. That's what the Giants asked him to do and he did it so well he was considered the best blocking TE of his day.

The Giants kept drafting guys to replace him but never could until Shockey came along.