Acme Packing Company
This one should be quite competitive!
In our continuing series on the Packers All-Quarter Century Team, let’s take a look at the big boy pass catchers. Those who straddle the line between receiver and, uhm, line. The line, line. It’s tight end time!
The Packers have quite the list of candidates for tight end this century. We have reliable security blankets, elite blockers, big-play specialists, well-loved internet characters, and Donald Lee. You could make the case for several of these guys, so let’s get to it!
Note: All stats shown are as a member of the Green Bay Packers only, from the 2000 through 2024 seasons only.
3x Pro Bowl
Regular season stats: 122 games, 262 receptions, 2347 yards, 32 touchdowns, 64.7% Catch&, 9 Y/R
Postseason stats: 8 games, 12 catches, 149 yards, 3 TDs, 54.5% Catch%, 12.4 Y/R
How you feel about Bubba is going to depend heavily on how you value receiving touchdowns. Since the merger, there are only 17 players in NFL history who scored a touchdown on a higher percentage of their total receptions than Franks, which is something to be sure. BUT, Franks’ 64.7% catch percentage isn’t exactly the mark of some surehanded wunderkind. I mean, Donald Lee caught almost 70% of his targets and he was running much more difficult routes. There is the “Favre throwing as hard as he can” factor of course, and Bubba was on the receiving end of a fair number of those as a trusted tight-window target, but also, maybe if he would have been a bit more open?
Then again, Bubba, as his name would suggest, was also an excellent blocker (you don’t get to be a Bubba by hauling in 30-yard bombs down the seam), and perhaps it’s enough to simply note that the excellent blocker of the early 2000s was also a phenom around the end zone, and as a 3-time pro bowler, was recognized as such by his peers.
Regular season stats: 49 games, 178 receptions, 1655 yards, 17 TDs, 69.8% Catch%, 9.7 Y/R
Postseason stats: 7 games, 5 receptions, 51 yards, 1 TDs, 50% Catch%, 10.1 Y/R
Hey, those stats aren’t bad! Lee’s 2007 season is actually quite impressive, though I have to confess, I’m surprised that he only averaged 9.7 Y/R as a Packer. My memory of Lee is of a true “big receiver” type stretching the field, and not getting as many opportunities as I thought he should, but that Y/R number and the 17 TDs resemble more of a half-Bubba than a proto-Finley. Of course, Donald also had the misfortune of playing his entire Packer career in the late-Favre/early Rodgers era without really enjoying the peak of either player.
Lee had solid hands, a knack for finding the end zone, and may be a bit underrated historically as a receiver. Unfortunately, my pining for him to be on the field more was likely the result of substandard blocking, and...
