[fullmetal]

My guess is that the contracts lag schematic utilization.  Players sign multi-year deals that lock in the numbers, but only recently have coaches started seeing the light.  In fact, only a few teams really fully use a pass-catching tight end like Gronk, mainly because it's hard to find a big body with enough speed.  (Pats, Saints rely on the flex TE.  Everyone else generally has a different primary offensive identity--Saints were banged up this year and had to lean on Graham, but Payton/Brees use Graham as a fourth WR.  Not sure about Atlanta since they have Jones and White.)

Looking at the top 25 fantasy TEs this last season (yes, I know Rob broke his arm), there was a clear difference in trend between the top six TEs and the rest of the field based on receptions.  For total receiving yardage, it was a steady trend from first to last.  And for TDs, it was also kind of a linear trend.  Gronkowski leads all TEs with 11 TDs, but it was Jason Witten who topped the field for both receptions and yardage.  Witten only had 3 TDs to show for that, however.  The highest fantasy scoring TE was Tony Gonzalez, followed by Jimmy Graham, Witten, Heath Miller, and Gronkowski.  There was a visible drop-off in fantasy points scored between #3 and #4.

Salaries
Gonzalez - 16 yrs - $5.9 mil
Graham - 3 yrs - $706,285
Witten - 10 yrs - $7.141 mil
Miller - 8 yrs - $7.07 mil
Gronk - 3 yrs - $2.61 mil

Clearly Jimmy Graham's agent has some catching up to do.  And I do think it's more interesting to look at the high-performing TEs' salaries rather than just the league-average TE salary.

[fullmetal]

My guess is that the contracts lag schematic utilization.  Players sign multi-year deals that lock in the numbers, but only recently have coaches started seeing the light.  In fact, only a few teams really fully use a pass-catching tight end like Gronk, mainly because it's hard to find a big body with enough speed.  (Pats, Saints rely on the flex TE.  Everyone else generally has a different primary offensive identity--Saints were banged up this year and had to lean on Graham, but Payton/Brees use Graham as a fourth WR.  Not sure about Atlanta since they have Jones and White.)

Looking at the top 25 fantasy TEs this last season (yes, I know Rob broke his arm), there was a clear difference in trend between the top six TEs and the rest of the field based on receptions.  For total receiving yardage, it was a steady trend from first to last.  And for TDs, it was also kind of a linear trend.  Gronkowski leads all TEs with 11 TDs, but it was Jason Witten who topped the field for both receptions and yardage.  Witten only had 3 TDs to show for that, however.  The highest fantasy scoring TE was Tony Gonzalez, followed by Jimmy Graham, Witten, Heath Miller, and Gronkowski.  There was a visible drop-off in fantasy points scored between #3 and #4.

Salaries
Gonzalez - 16 yrs - $5.9 mil
Graham - 3 yrs - $706,285
Witten - 10 yrs - $7.141 mil
Miller - 8 yrs - $7.07 mil
Gronk - 3 yrs - $2.61 mil

Clearly Jimmy Graham's agent has some catching up to do.  And I do think it's more interesting to look at the high-performing TEs' salaries rather than just the league-average TE salary.