Brent Celek was a unique talent who began his career as one of the NFL's top receiving tight ends and finished it as one of the league's best blocking tight ends.
Any way you measure it, Celek is an all-time Eagle. Including the postseason, he played in the fourth-most games in franchise history, had the fourth-most catches in Eagles history and may have made the most fans in franchise history.
On the day Celek formally announced his retirement after 11 years in the NFL, all with the Eagles, let's take a look at 10 stats that really spell out exactly what sort of player Brent Celek was:
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1. Celek finished his career with 398 catches for 4,998 yards and 31 touchdowns. Celek was the 162nd player taken in the 2009 draft, and only three tight ends in NFL history drafted later than him caught more passes — Shannon Sharpe (192nd player taken in 1990) caught 815, Steve Jordan (179th player taken in 1982) caught 498 and Delanie Walker (175th player taken in 2006) has 479 going into 2018.
2. Celek’s 27 postseason catches are 19th-most among tight ends in NFL history. His 10 catches in the 2008 NFC Championship Game remains an Eagles postseason record, the fifth-most in NFL postseason history by a tight end and tied for the most by any NFL tight end in a playoff game since Jay Novacek had 11 catches against the Packers in 1994.
3. Celek played more regular-season games in an Eagles uniform (175) than anybody in franchise history who never played for another team. Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik (169), Randy Logan (159) and Jerry Sisemore (156) are next on that list.
4A. Celek became the first to play 11 or more years with the Eagles and retire without having spent a day with another team since Sisemore retired after the 1984 season.
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4B. Celek is one of only nine players in franchise history to play 11 years with the Eagles and never spend a day in another uniform. The others: Bednarik (14 years, 1949-62), Bucko Kilroy (13 years, 1943-55), Vic Sears (13 years, 1941-53), Sisemore (12 years, 1973-84), Bobby Walston (12 years, 1951-62), John Bunting (11 years, 1972-82), Randy Logan (11 years, 1973-83) and Pete Retzlaff (11 years, 1956-66).
5. From 2007 through 2017, Celek played in 175 of a possible 176 games. Only three non-kickers played in more games during that 11-year span — William Gay, Philip Rivers and Jason Witten. Eli Manning also played in 175 games.
6. Celek caught passes from 12 different quarterbacks during his Eagles career, with Michael Vick (124) and Donovan McNabb (91) completing the most passes to him. Others he caught passes from include Nick Foles (55), Kevin Kolb (36), Mark Sanchez (30), Carson Wentz (23), Sam Bradford (17), Vince Young (14), Matt Barkley (3), Nate Sudfeld (3), A.J. Feeley (1) and Mike Kafka (1).
7. From 2009 through 2013, Celek became the only tight end in Eagles history with five straight seasons with 500 or more yards. During that five-year span, he ranked sixth among all NFL tight ends with 3,479 yards, eighth with 24 touchdowns and ninth with 269 catches.
8. Celek is the fourth Eagle (and first in more than 30 years) to catch a pass in 11 straight seasons. Harold Carmichael (1971-83), Bobby Walston (1951-62) and Pete Retzlaff (1956-66) also did it.
9. Celek played at least one regular-season game with 294 different teammates. Alphabetically, that list runs from Jamar Adams to Vince Young. He played the most games with Jon Dorenbos (156), Trent Cole (123), Brandon Graham (110), Jason Peters (110), Jason Avant (107) and Todd Herremans (106).
10. He also had eight 100-yard games, most ever by an Eagles tight end, and is one of only four Eagles in the record book with 100-yard games seven years apart (his first was in Seattle in 2008, his last was in 2015 against the Dolphins). The only other players with 100-yard games seven years apart are Pete Retzlaff (1958, 1966), Harold Carmichael (1972, 1983) and Bobby Walston (1951, 1961).