Vote for Greatest Falcons TE of All Time

I’ve done some serious digging on this one. First, because I didn’t want to have to vote for Crumpler – then because I changed my mind (because of his huge numbers) and was trying to justify voting for Crumpler.

To me, Junior Miller is clearly 3rd. He only played here 4 years, and only had the one good year (1980). He didn’t really deserve to go to the Pro Bowl in ‘81, but Ozzie Newsome, Kellen Winslow, Dave Casper, etc were all in the AFC – they had to send somebody from the NFC (his TE ranks for ’81: 17th in Receptions, 16th in Yards, and 18th in TDs – doesn’t sound like a Pro Bowl season to me).

I was most familiar with Crumpler – but in a bad way. His “advanced stats” numbers (from Football Outsiders) are terrible, with the exception of his ‘04 season. I know we’ve already had this discussion… but he put up huge counting numbers because the team didn’t have anyone else to rely on in the passing game (Peerless Price, Brian Finneran, Jenkins, and Roddy were not good WRs then). His Catch % was probably hurt for some of those same reasons, though – no other threats, kciV accuracy issues, etc.
Here’s his TE Ranks for his 4 Pro Bowl years, plus Catch Rate (DYAR is a counting stat, so he should rank highly with all the balls thrown his way):

Year – Rec – Yds – TD – DYAR – C%
2003 – #10 – #5 — #9 – #23 — 55%
2004 – #8 — #6 — #6 — #4 — 65%
2005 – #7 — #4 — #8 – #20 — 55%
2006 – #9 — #4 — #2 – #19 — 51%

Here’s why I voted for Jim Mitchell:
1) He was a Falcon longer (hey Warlock, 1969-1979 is actually 11 seasons).
2) He also (like Crump) led the team in receptions a few years (I have no idea if Paul Flatley or Ken Burrow were any good, and Alfred Jenkins didn’t arrive until 1975).
3) He was a huge deep threat and/or YAC guy (I don’t know which… I never saw him) – his Yards per Catch numbers were phenomenal until around 1976.
4) His peak was higher – his two best years were better than Crump’s two best years, if you go by his Ranks compared to other TE’s: 1970 he was #2 in Receptions, #2 in Yards, and tied for 3rd in TDs; 1971 he was #5 in Receptions, #3 in Yards, and tied for 3rd in TDs, which brings me to my next point…
5) He should have gone to at least 3 Pro Bowls – his best 2 years (‘70 and ’71) he somehow didn’t even go to the Pro Bowl. He probably should have gone to the Pro Bowl in 1975, too. He went to the Pro Bowl in 1969 and 1972 when he was barely in the top 10 in the three categories I listed (well, 1969 was before the AFL-NFL merger, and NFL.com lumps them all together, so I’m not sure where he ranked considering just NFL/NFC players). There were tons of quality options in the NFC during his career – Charlie Sanders and Jackie Smith are in the Hall of Fame, plus Charle Young and Ted Kwalick both went to multiple Pro Bowls in the early ‘70s. It’s not his fault that he played the same time as two HOF’ers in the same Conference…
6) While Crump had 4 years in the TE top 10 ranks, Mitchell had 7 years (though not quite as highly ranked as Crump, except ’70 and ’71) where he was in the top 10 in most categories of TEs.

I’ve changed my mind several times on this one, but I finally decided on Jim Mitchell. But I’m pretty sure Dave’s not going to have to “shaz a brick”, thankfully…