Brent Jones ranks in the all-time elite tier for tight ends — a career that places Jones in the top 3% of all players at the position. The Knox value model assigns Jones a career score of 87, reflecting sustained impact that most players at the position never approach.

On the boards· Appears on 3 boards

TESF#84ACT

Brent Jones

4× Pro Bowl👑 Dynasty DNA · 11 seasons · 3 titles Top 2% all-time TEsIron Legend📊 Undervalued by voters 📈 Late Developer · 1993

Career Value · VORP

349 career value over replacement — #74 all-time of 4,695. 31.7/season above a replacement-level TE.

Draft OutcomeSteal ↑

Pick #135 (Rd 5) · PIT · 1986 · +56.5 vs expected KV-H

87actual

30.5 expected · Δ+56.5

💔+41.2 stolen VORP·1.3 szns lost

Fan Rating

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Compare Brent Jones vs Player Report data error

All-Time Standing

how this career measures against the all-time greats at the position

Depth

of 100

Reached 27% of the all-time Receptions leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

27% of the all-time Receptions leader27

1 category ≥25% of the all-time leader33

A 0–100 scale where 100 = matched the all-time leader at this position. Built only from visible encyclopedia data — career production vs. the all-time leader, plus efficiency (EPA) and comparable-player confidence — so it's a transparent context score, not a subjective rating. Tiers: Elite ≥ 85 · Strong ≥ 65 · Solid ≥ 45 · Depth < 45. Comparable-player confidence: 93%.

Encyclopedia Coverage4/8 data layers

StatVault aggregates multiple open-licensed and proprietary sources into a single profile. The depth indicator above shows which layers are available for this player.

Bio & DraftBirth date, height/weight, draft round/pick, college — sourced from nflverse players.csv (CC-BY 4.0). Covers all NFL eras.

Season Stats (1999–present)Week-by-week box scores aggregated to season totals: passing, rushing, receiving, defense. Source: nflverse player_stats. Counting stats are exact; rates are derived.

Advanced (EPA, 1999–present)Not available for this player

Snap Counts (2012–present)Not available for this player

Defensive StatsNot available for this player

College StatsCollege attribution is present, but this profile artifact does not yet carry a parsed college stat table.

NFL Combine / Pro DayNot available for this player

Proprietary LayersKV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — era-normalized career rating 0–100 calibrated within position group (1999+ coverage). SIS (Snap Impact Score, 2012+) — per-snap production z-scored within position. VORP — value over replacement player. Durability IQ — games-played percentile adjusted for era.

Where this data comes from

Modern-era stats (1999+) come from nflverse's open data releases. Pre-1999 seasons are backfilled additively from Wikipedia and NFL.com's own official season pages — never from rights-restricted sources.

nflverse — CC-BY 4.0 — attribution required
Wikipedia — Facts extracted under Feist v. Rural Telephone; courtesy CC-BY-SA attribution
NFL.com — Official league site; facts extracted under Feist, courtesy attribution

Methodology · Trust Center

Career Aging Trajectory

vs. position group average · KV-H basis

Playoff vs Regular Season

📊 Consistent

Yards / Reception: 12.5 regular season → 12.3 playoffs (10 playoff seasons)

-1%

vs reg season

Career Milestones6

Major career thresholds crossed, derived from regular-season totals (1999+).

19901K career receiving yards
1990100 career receptions
19933K career receiving yards
1994250 career receptions
199425 career receiving TDs
19975K career receiving yards

Understanding These Stats

Receiving

Tgt — Targets — how many times the receiver was thrown to, regardless of completion.

Rec — Receptions — catches made.

Yds — Receiving yards.

TD — Receiving touchdowns.

Ctch% — Catch rate — receptions ÷ targets × 100. Measures how reliably a receiver turns opportunities into gains. 70%+ is elite.

Y/R — Yards per reception — receiving yards ÷ receptions. Measures big-play ability; 15+ is elite for WRs.

Y/Tgt — Yards per target — receiving yards ÷ targets. The single most complete receiving efficiency metric: accounts for both drops and incomplete targets. Elite receivers post 8+ yards per target.

AirYd/T — Air yards per target — average depth of route at time of target. High values indicate a deep threat role; low values indicate a slot/check-down role.

1D — First downs gained on receiving plays.

Proprietary StatVault Metrics

KV-H (Knox Value-Historical) — Era-normalized career rating 0–100 within position group, calibrated so a 50 = average starter and 90+ = all-time great. Covers 1999–present. Built on a 5-year IQR/robust-std era window.

Postseason Career

Receiving

Rec60Yds740TD5Y/R12.3

College Stats

Santa Clara UniversityCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Santa Clara University), but no parsed college box-score table is present in this profile artifact. The section stays here so every profile has a consistent college-stats landing point without fabricating unavailable rows.

Reference Graph

Career teammates and draft class, derived from year-by-year rosters — every name is linked.

Top Teammates

Jerry RiceWR11y Steve YoungQB11y John TaylorWR9y Merton HanksDB7y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Brent opened the San Francisco 49ers TE lineage the corpus knows, and handed it to Vernon Davis (2006–2015).

Brent Jones 1987–1997Vernon Davis 2006–2015George Kittle 2017–2026

The room is reconstructed from arrival order among durable members (≥4 seasons with the club) at the player’s position group — a lineage by arrival, not a week-by-week depth chart. Distinct from the league-wide positional GOAT torch.

Similar Players

Statistical + physical similarity across every player in the database, position-relevant (0–100%).

Movementderived from season history

1997final season
Last recorded season with SF
1987team change
Joined SF (from PIT)
1986draft
Drafted by PIT — Round 5, Pick 135

Athletic & Unique Profile

verified measurements and curated source-tagged facts

6'4" / 230 lb

Frame

Knox

StatVault's proprietary player intelligence, informed by full career data. How Knox works →

Historical Knox · KV-H

Era-normalized career quality — z-scored against 11-season peers. See all →

peak 94

Season Report Cards· KV-H era-normalized per season

F1987

C1988

B+1989

A+1990

A1991

A+1992

A+1993

A+1994

A1995

B+1996

B+1997

Availability

Career durability — games played vs. scheduled, across 11 seasons.

Era Translator

Rec Yds translated to the 2025 NFL — each season's standing among its own-era peers, projected onto 2025's scoring environment. Modern-era (1999+) coverage.

Season	Actual Rec Yds	Rec Yds/G	→ 2025 Rec Yds	→ 2025 /G
1987	35	8.8	349+314	20.5
1988	57	5.2	288+231	16.9
1989	500	31.3	850+350	50
1990	747	46.7	1,231+484	72.4
1991	417	41.7	1,169+752	68.8
1992	628	41.9	1,150+522	67.6
1993	735	45.9	1,241+506	73
1994	670	44.7	1,168+498	68.7
1995	595	37.2	953+358	56
1996	428	38.9	971+543	57.1
1997	383	29.5	745+362	43.9

Data: nflverse:draft_picks, nflverse:players, wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), espn.com:stats-api (games-played, facts-only reference) · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 8/31/2026