There’s no position in football that’s evolved more than tight end. Back in the day, the tight end was looked at as the sixth offensive lineman. Today, the position can be as versatile as an extra offensive tackle or even a giant size slot receiver.

NFL legend Mike Ditka was introduced to the Hall Of Fame as a player in 1988. He was one of the first players to help revolutionize the tight end position. During his rookie year, he piled up 56 catches for 1,076 yards to go along with 12 touchdowns, which was his highest total in a season. For his career, Ditka caught 427 passes and found the end zone 43 times.

While Ditka’s numbers were impressive for his time, the position began to evolve to another level in the 90’s with Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe and future Canton enshrinee Tony Gonzalez.

When Sharpe retired after the 2002 campaign. He was the NFL’s all-time leader in receptions (815), receiving yards (10,060) and receiving touchdowns (62) for a tight end. Tony Gonzalez would eventually broke all of Sharpe’s records.

Gonzalez has an interesting take on the evolution of the position.

“For me, I’m old school,” Gonzalez explained. “The way I learned it, you block. You put your hand in the dirt. Now I can see Antonio Gates, in this point in his career, he ain’t blocking anymore, just let him go out and catch touchdowns. The position, I think, has evolved but the good ones are those who can do both catching and blocking. Only a small few can’t. And then there’s a ‘flex’ position now. And I’ve told Jimmy, I’m not calling you a tight end until you start blocking. You’re just a ‘flex.’ Guys like Gronkowski, Jason Witten — they’re on goal-line, third-and-one, and they’re going to run the ball right behind those guys. Same with me. I like that. Majority of my career, until last year even if people said I wasn’t blocking. It’s there on the tape. I didn’t come off the field on third-and-short.”

As we know, the NFL is a copycat league. If you want to win, you’re going to look at what appears to be the winning formula. Apparently, getting pass catching tight ends was the formula, which makes a lot of sense because they’re so difficult to defend.

One reason why they’re so difficult to defend is their ball skills, which come from basketball for a few of these talented athletes. Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Julius Thomas, Jimmy Graham and Jordan Cameron all played collegiate basketball.

The most dominant tight end in the game right now didn’t play with the round ball. Rob Gronkowski, New England’s 6-foot-6 physical specimen has emerged as the new face of tight ends. He’s too fast for linebackers and too big for corners, which makes him a complete mismatch for opponents week in and week out.

Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis knows how difficult it is to defend Gronk and is happy he doesn’t have to do it right now.

“I feel sorry for them, I really do,” Revis said of defenders. “Because Gronk is very tough to cover. I feel sorry. And Gronk, he works hard at it. He works hard, he does what he needs to do as a professional football player, and he’s an elite player.”

Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski have emerged as one of the top duos in the league.

“He’s just tough to stop,” Brady, the three-time Super Bowl champion said. “So if they put extra guys to stop him, then it really gives other guys an opportunity, maybe more opportunity than they would typically get. I think when Gronk does well, it really benefits all the other pass catchers, too. He’s just a great player.”

The whole Jimmy Graham situation over the off-season illustrated this as being the golden era of tight ends perfectly.

The fact that Graham feels he should be labeled as a wide receiver speaks volumes. The 27-year old actually fought it over the summer because the market value for a wide receiver far succeeds that of a tight end. At the end of the day, Graham was ruled a tight end but he still ended up receiving a nice payday.

Graham agreed to an 4-year, $40 million extension, which makes him the highest paid tight end in the NFL. Last season, he led the league with 16 touchdowns and gobbled up 86 catches for 1,215 yards.

The evolution of the position has made evaluating collegiate athletes difficult.

“You don’t see a lot of in-the-line tight ends, true blocking tight ends very often anymore, and when you do, it’s different,” Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden said. “But there are still some guys that utilize the tight end position in college and those are the guys that you get a good chance to look at.

“But the ones (who don’t), you would have to see how he would fit because he hasn’t been asked to do it. No fault of theirs, but it’s a tough position to evaluate right now because of all the spread offenses.”

With more impressive athletes coming through the ranks, expect the tight end position to continue evolving.