Building A GGN All Time Jets Team: Tight End

We have the 41st position filled on the GGN All Time Jets Team. The winner of the second vote at Tight End is: Rich Caster!

Rich Caster played 11 years in the NFL, from 1970 through 1980, the first eight with the Jets. Caster had the misfortune of playing his entire career during the worst stretch of Jets football in franchise history, the dreadful 1970s. Rich Caster earned Pro Bowl honors three times for the Jets, in 1972, 1974 and 1975. In those three years Caster finished 4th, 6th, and 6th in receiving yards in the NFL. He was named second team on the Pro Football Reference All 1970s team at tight end. Caster’s brilliance is somewhat obscured by the era he played in. The 1970s saw passing offenses grind to a halt, as defenses dominated and offenses went the ground and pound route. In Caster’s three best years the Jets never passed for as many as 3000 yards. Rich Caster never had more than 833 yards in a season, but when we put that in perspective with the way the game was played, he was dominant. Football Perspective compiled a list earlier this year of all post-merger tight end seasons in which a tight end averaged 2 or more yards per team pass attempt. That is, divide a tight end’s receiving yardage by the total of all pass attempts to all targets of the team, and we get yards per team pass attempt, a measure of dominance in an offense regardless of how pass happy the offense was. Rich Caster had the third most dominant season by a tight end in post-merger NFL history in 1972, with 2.4 yards per team pass attempt. Caster also is one of only six tight ends in post-merger NFL history with three seasons of 2 yards or more per team pass attempt. The other five are Tony Gonzales, Antonio Gates, Todd Christianson, Kellen Winslow (the HOFer, who played for the Chargers, not the son who ended his career with the Jets) and Travis Kelce. That’s the kind of player Rich Caster was.

From now until mid July I’ll be putting up a daily poll asking GGN to vote on the best Jets players of all time. The idea here is to build a 55 man roster of the best players ever to wear the Green and White. The roster will consist of 26 offensive players, 26 defensive players, and three special team players.

OFFENSE

Quarterback: 3

Wide Receiver: 6

Running Back: 4

TIGHT END: 3

MICKEY SHULER

RICH CASTER

OFFENSIVE TACKLE

WINSTON HILL

D’BRICKASHAW FERGUSON

MARVIN POWELL

JASON FABINI

INTERIOR OFFENSIVE LINE

KEVIN MAWAE

NICK MANGOLD

RANDY RASMUSSEN

JOE FIELDS

DAVE HERMAN

JIM SWEENEY

DEFENSE

SAFETY

JAMAL ADAMS

VICTOR GREEN

KERRY RHODES

ERIK MCMILLAN

CORNERBACK

DARRELLE REVIS

AARON GLENN

JAMES HASTY

ANTONIO CROMARTIE

JOHNNY SAMPLE

BOBBY JACKSON

LINEBACKER

DAVID HARRIS

LARRY GRANTHAM

MARVIN JONES

LANCE MEHL

KYLE CLIFTON

GREG BUTTLE

EDGE

MARK GASTINEAU

JOHN ABRAHAM

GERRY PHILBIN

SHAUN ELLIS

MO LEWIS

INTERIOR DEFENSIVE LINE

JOE KLECKO

MARTY LYONS

DAMON HARRISON

JOHN ELLIOTT

ABDUL SALAAM

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicker

PAT LEAHY

Punter

TOM TUPA

Returner

LEON WASHINGTON

Every day I will be putting up a poll at one position. The choices will be limited to players who were on the Jets roster for at least three seasons. I will not be including players who were great for other teams but not great for the Jets (for example, guys like Matt Forte or LaDainian Tomlinson will not be included in the polls, though both those guys would be excluded for not meeting the three year rule as well). Each day we will close the previous day’s poll and the candidate with the most votes will be added to the GGN All Time Jets Team. In the event of a tie vote both players will be added to the team.

In the event I have made an egregious omission and a name you think should be on the poll is not there you can write in candidates in the comments section. If a player gets support in the comments section I’ll add him to the next day’s poll.

So let’s get to it. Today we vote on the third and final spot at the tight end position. Who will it be? Vote early, vote often, and let’s hear who you think are the best players ever to have played for the New York Jets.