Jordan Reed is retiring, betrayed by a body that couldn't stay on the field. Those who had him rostered in fantasy leagues during his short career should remember him fondly, at least for when he was available. A healthy Reed was pretty awesome.
He wasn't healthy often enough, of course. From 2013 to 2020, Reed played in only 75 of a possible 128 games. Especially disappointing was 2019, when Reed got blown up with a helmet-to-helmet hit on his only catch of the preseason and missed the entire year. But he had a couple of nice games filling in for the 49ers after George Kittle got hurt last year. And he was really good for some of his first few seasons.
Reed, in fact, was a top-15 PPR tight end in 2015, 2016 and 2018. He would have been even better in those years but for injuries that cost him 2-4 games in all three years. I've taken the liberty of projecting his fantasy points (*) in those years over a 16-game season. (If he'd actually played in every game.) He'd have had two of the top 15 fantasy seasons by a tight end over the last six years (also the 54th-best).
TOP TIGHT END FANTASY SEASONS, 2015-2020 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR |
2020 | Travis Kelce | 145 | 105 | 1416 | 13.5 | 11 | 314.8 |
2018 | Travis Kelce | 150 | 103 | 1336 | 13.0 | 10 | 296.6 |
2015 | Jordan Reed | 114 | 87 | 952 | 10.9 | 11 | 283.6* |
2020 | Darren Waller | 145 | 107 | 1196 | 11.2 | 9 | 282.6 |
2018 | Zach Ertz | 156 | 116 | 1163 | 10.0 | 8 | 280.3 |
2018 | George Kittle | 136 | 88 | 1377 | 15.7 | 5 | 258.7 |
2019 | Travis Kelce | 136 | 97 | 1229 | 12.7 | 5 | 256.3 |
2015 | Rob Gronkowski | 120 | 72 | 1176 | 16.3 | 11 | 255.6 |
2015 | Delanie Walker | 133 | 94 | 1088 | 11.6 | 6 | 244.4 |
2015 | Gary Barnidge | 125 | 79 | 1043 | 13.2 | 9 | 237.3 |
2017 | Travis Kelce | 122 | 83 | 1038 | 12.5 | 8 | 235.5 |
2015 | Greg Olsen | 124 | 77 | 1104 | 14.3 | 7 | 229.4 |
2016 | Jordan Reed | 89 | 66 | 686 | 10.4 | 6 | 227.5* |
2017 | Rob Gronkowski | 105 | 69 | 1084 | 15.7 | 8 | 227.4 |
2018 | Eric Ebron | 110 | 66 | 750 | 11.4 | 13 | 224.2 |
2019 | Darren Waller | 117 | 90 | 1145 | 12.7 | 3 | 223.0 |
2016 | Travis Kelce | 117 | 85 | 1125 | 13.2 | 4 | 223.0 |
2019 | George Kittle | 107 | 85 | 1053 | 12.4 | 5 | 222.5 |
2019 | Zach Ertz | 135 | 88 | 916 | 10.4 | 6 | 217.6 |
2019 | Mark Andrews | 98 | 64 | 852 | 13.3 | 10 | 209.2 |
2016 | Kyle Rudolph | 132 | 83 | 840 | 10.1 | 7 | 209.0 |
2016 | Greg Olsen | 129 | 80 | 1073 | 13.4 | 3 | 207.3 |
2017 | Zach Ertz | 110 | 74 | 824 | 11.1 | 8 | 204.4 |
2018 | Jared Cook | 101 | 68 | 896 | 13.2 | 6 | 193.6 |
2015 | Travis Kelce | 103 | 72 | 875 | 12.2 | 5 | 193.5 |
2016 | Jimmy Graham | 95 | 65 | 923 | 14.2 | 6 | 193.3 |
2015 | Benjamin Watson | 110 | 74 | 825 | 11.2 | 6 | 192.5 |
2019 | Austin Hooper | 97 | 75 | 787 | 10.5 | 6 | 191.7 |
2015 | Tyler Eifert | 74 | 52 | 615 | 11.8 | 13 | 191.5 |
2016 | Delanie Walker | 102 | 65 | 800 | 12.3 | 7 | 188.1 |
2016 | Zach Ertz | 106 | 78 | 816 | 10.5 | 4 | 183.6 |
2017 | Delanie Walker | 111 | 74 | 807 | 10.9 | 3 | 178.5 |
2020 | T.J. Hockenson | 101 | 67 | 723 | 10.8 | 6 | 177.3 |
2020 | Logan Thomas | 110 | 72 | 670 | 9.3 | 6 | 176.9 |
2020 | Robert Tonyan | 59 | 52 | 586 | 11.3 | 11 | 176.6 |
2017 | Evan Engram | 115 | 64 | 722 | 11.3 | 6 | 173.6 |
2017 | Jack Doyle | 108 | 80 | 690 | 8.6 | 4 | 173.0 |
2015 | Zach Ertz | 112 | 75 | 853 | 11.4 | 2 | 172.3 |
2017 | Jimmy Graham | 96 | 57 | 520 | 9.1 | 10 | 171.0 |
2016 | Cameron Brate | 81 | 57 | 660 | 11.6 | 8 | 171.0 |
2016 | Dennis Pitta | 121 | 86 | 729 | 8.5 | 2 | 170.9 |
2020 | Mark Andrews | 88 | 58 | 701 | 12.1 | 7 | 170.1 |
2016 | Martellus Bennett | 73 | 55 | 701 | 12.8 | 7 | 168.1 |
2019 | Jared Cook | 65 | 43 | 705 | 16.4 | 9 | 167.5 |
2015 | Jason Witten | 104 | 77 | 713 | 9.3 | 3 | 166.3 |
2018 | Austin Hooper | 88 | 71 | 660 | 9.3 | 4 | 163.0 |
2019 | Tyler Higbee | 89 | 69 | 734 | 10.6 | 3 | 160.4 |
2015 | Richard Rodgers | 85 | 58 | 510 | 8.8 | 8 | 160.1 |
2020 | Mike Gesicki | 85 | 53 | 703 | 13.3 | 6 | 159.3 |
2017 | Kyle Rudolph | 81 | 57 | 532 | 9.3 | 8 | 158.2 |
2016 | Jason Witten | 95 | 69 | 673 | 9.8 | 3 | 154.3 |
2019 | Hunter Henry | 76 | 55 | 652 | 11.9 | 5 | 152.2 |
2018 | Kyle Rudolph | 82 | 64 | 634 | 9.9 | 4 | 151.4 |
2018 | Jordan Reed | 84 | 54 | 558 | 10.3 | 2 | 149.9* |
2016 | Antonio Gates | 93 | 53 | 548 | 10.3 | 7 | 149.8 |
2020 | Noah Fant | 93 | 62 | 673 | 10.9 | 3 | 149.3 |
2020 | Rob Gronkowski | 77 | 45 | 623 | 13.8 | 7 | 149.3 |
2020 | Hayden Hurst | 88 | 56 | 571 | 10.2 | 6 | 149.1 |
2018 | Trey Burton | 76 | 54 | 569 | 10.5 | 6 | 149.1 |
2017 | Jason Witten | 87 | 63 | 560 | 8.9 | 5 | 149.0 |
Reed's injury history includes a series of concussions, so it's good for him that he's getting out at the age of 30 -- hopefully it's not a case where the concussions are continuing to impact his daily life, although that's possible. In any case, it was a career that burned brightly at times, and left its mark on the NFL, and fantasy leagues, while it did.
--Andy Richardson