This past week, from Monday June 23, 2025 until Thursday June 26, 2025, all of the best tight ends in the world gathered at Tight End University, founded by George Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen as an elite camp for tight ends.
So many great tight ends graced the field at Vanderbilt University throughout the course of the week.
One all-time great TE, Rob Gronkowski, was not at the big event. But Gronk did take time to shout out one of the founders of TEU.
On an episode of “Hot Ones Versus” alongside Danny Amendola, Gronkowski gave Kittle a simple but bold title.
“The best in the game.”
Gronkowski cited Kittle’s status as an All-Pro last season and his statistical acumen of 1,106 yards and 8 touchdowns (though Gronk mistakenly said Kittle had over 10 touchdowns. Make sure you double check football reference next time Gronk).
Amendola asked Gronk to rank four tight ends: Kittle, Dallas Goedert, Mark Andrews and Dalton Kincaid and he made the statement while explaining why he thinks Kittle is #1 out of that group.
Hot Ones Left Some Great TEs Out of the Discussion
While Kittle certainly has a case for the greatest tight end of all time, two tight ends were notably omitted from the segment and were not mentioned by Gronkowski: Kansas City Chiefs megastar Travis Kelce, Kittle’s co-founder at TEU, and young Las Vegas Raiders superstar Brock Bowers.
Kelce has more Pro Bowl appearances, All-Pro designations, Super Bowl titles, receiving yards, and touchdowns than Kittle all-time. But, he did have a down year this past season, recording only 823 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns, both the lowest in a full season of Kelce’s career.
As for Bowers, he actually had a better season than Kittle, and with worse quarterback play. With Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell behind center, Bowers turned in a First Team All-Pro season with more receiving yards than Kittle.
It does seem however that Gronkowski prioritizes experience over recent success as he ranked Kincaid last seemingly purely because of his youth.
Gronk certainly has an argument for ranking Kittle as the best in the game, but it becomes a lot more difficult of a ranking if Kelce and Bowers are involved.
Can Kittle Become the Greatest Tight End Ever?
If George Kittle truly is the best tight end in the NFL currently, could he ever be considered the best tight end in NFL history?
He certainly has a long way to go. He’s 7,747 yards behind Tony Gonzalez for the NFL record for most career receiving yards for a TE. Kittle would essentially have to double his career total.
He’s also 71 touchdowns behind Antonio Gates for the most career touchdowns by a tight end all time.
Kittle has also never won a Super Bowl; Kelce and Gronkowski have 3 each. He’s also 8 Pro Bowls behind Gonzalez who has the TE record with 14.
Kittle is currently 31. To become the undisputed best tight end ever, Kittle would need to play about 10 more seasons and average 775 receiving yards, 7 touchdowns, reach Pro Bowls in 9/10 of those seasons and lead the 49ers to at least one Super Bowl.
Kittle would have to break another record to have that kind of career however: the record for oldest tight end in NFL history. Marcedes Lewis was the oldest tight end in NFL history at age 40 in 2024; Kittle would have to either accumulate those stats at a faster rate or have almost unprecedented longevity for a TE.
Kittle talked about his retirement plans recently on the Bussin with the Boys podcast with Taylor Lewan and Will Compton. But he mostly just said he’s going to play until he doesn’t feel like it anymore and gave no specific timeline.
https://x.com/Coach_Yac/status/1937542847428743325
So what do you think, 49ers fans? Is George Kittle the best tight end in the NFL, and will NFL fans ever consider him the greatest of all time?
