Mark Andrews career trajectory with Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens know they have something good with Mark Andrews, but the question is just how good is he? Through his age-27 season, he hit 4,000 career yards receiving, which is impressive when you consider that only 11 players have done this from the tight end spot, and a good portion of that list is Hall of Fame-type players.

Mark Andrews career trajectory with Baltimore Ravens

So, what does that mean that we can expect him to bring the Ravens over the next few seasons? If he is anything like these names, what can we expect?

To be fair, he is not quite on the Rob Gronkowski tier of statistical upside. Also, some names on the list like Mike Ditka, and John Mackey are hard to compare. So, the best names in recent history to compare the closest to Mark Andrews would include Antonio Gates, Jeremy Shockey, Kellen Winslow Jr., and Jason Witten.

In the case of Kellen Winslow, he had a solid season with 763 yards during his age-28 season. However, at that point, his career fell off the rails and a potential Hall of Fame start to a career ended shortly afterward. To be fair, some of the questions with Winslow came down to off of the field, and mentality, so he may not be the best comparison for Mark Andrews, either.

Jeremy Shockey never really had the 800-yard peaks that Winslow had early in his career, but what he did bring was steady production. He continued to play consistent football until he was 31 years old when he walked away healthy with 455 yards during his last season.

The last two may be the best cases. Antonio Gates lasted until he was 38 and he posted 548 yards during his age-36 season. Gates also had a career year when he was 29. If this is the case for Andrews we have not seen the best from him yet, and he may be here for a long time to come.

The same can be said for Jason Witten. Witten played until he was 38, although he retired when he was 36 for a season as well. Still, he had 1,002 yards when he was 28 years old. Then, he had 942, 1,039, and 851 yards in the following three years after that. If that is the next four years with Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews will earn another big extension, and he will be on track to play in Baltimore until he is 36.

So, fans should always remember that there is the possibility for the Kellen Winslow type of outcome when the first few years brought a lot of promise, and it did not happen. Then, there is Jeremy Shockey who just remains consistent, but does not go over the top. However, there is just as strong of a chance that a Hall of Fame type of career arch has unfolded, and Andrews still has a long career ahead of him, including a possible career season.