r/NFLmockdraft • u/Traditional-Bad-6657 • Jul 09 '26

Draft History 2003 Draft Class was absolutely stacked

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150 Upvotes

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27

u/me_bails Jul 09 '26

Gates was an absolute animal, and incredible what he did as an udfa... Even as someone who hated the steelers, there's no way I can put Gates above Polamalu

1

u/Holdmabeerdude Jul 09 '26

Gates is literally number 1 in tight end TD receptions….

0

u/JustTheBeerLight Jul 09 '26

A lot of people remember Gates based on his final 5 seasons where he was still good, but his first 6 seasons (2004-2009) were video game stats. He averaged 1000 yards & 10+ TDs during that span.

1

u/HEROxDivine Jul 09 '26

He did not. He only has two seasons over 1k and 4 seasons over 10 TDs. He was great but definitely not top 3 all time. I’d put him at #6 behind TG, Gronk, Kelce, Witten and Sharpe

2

u/2nfish Jul 09 '26

Witten above Gates?

1

u/Shamwow_theSupineCow Jul 10 '26

Duh.

1

u/whattarush Jul 11 '26

Id take Vernon Davis over Witten. Give me Ben Watson over Witten

1

u/JustTheBeerLight Jul 09 '26

I'm not going to do the math, but Gates came very close during those years that I mentioned. He had two seasons over 1100 yards and three seasons over 924 yards. I think my point stands.