Mike Ditka is a Hall of Fame tight end whose career earned a solid career value score of 65 in the Knox value model. Ditka's enshrinement reflects a career that consistently placed him among the elite of his generation.

TEDALhistorical

Mike Ditka

★ HALL OF FAMETop 16% all-time TEsIron Man📉 Fades · -29% playoffs 🌅 Early Bloomer · 1961

BornOct 18, 1939

Age86

CollegePittsburgh See College Stats

Rookie yr1961

All-Time Standing

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

Depth

of 100

Reached 28% of the all-time Receptions leader — a rotational/depth all-time profile at the position.

28% of the all-time Receptions leader28

2 categories ≥25% of the all-time leader67

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: 97%.

Encyclopedia Coverage

Career Value · VORP

115 career value over replacement — #947 all-time of 4,695. 10.5/season above a replacement-level TE.

Fan Rating

Rate Mike Ditka — All-Time

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Compare Mike Ditka vs Player Report data error

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.

Pre-1999 players have bio + draft data but counting stats are not available from any freely-licensed source. Players with ★ Career Only see verified career aggregates from nflverse draft_picks.

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

Amber = this player (normalized to own peak). Indigo = average tight ends aging curve. Group peak age: 25. Source: StatVault KV-H era (1999+).

Playoff vs Regular Season

📉 Regular Season Player

Yards / Reception: 13.6 regular season → 9.7 playoffs (5 playoff seasons)

-29%

vs reg season

Career Milestones6

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

19611K career receiving yards
1962100 career receptions
196325 career receiving TDs
19643K career receiving yards
1965250 career receptions
19695K career receiving yards

Understanding These Stats

Rushing

Att — Rushing attempts (carries).

Yds — Rushing yards.

TD — Rushing touchdowns.

Y/A — Yards per carry — rushing yards ÷ carries. The core rushing efficiency rate; 4.5+ is solid, 5+ is elite.

TD% — Touchdown rate per carry (TDs ÷ carries × 100) — measures scoring efficiency per touch independent of volume. Red-zone workhorses lead here.

1D — First downs gained on rushing plays.

1D% — First-down conversion rate (first downs ÷ carries × 100) — how often a carry moves the chains. Top RBs convert on 25%+ of attempts.

Fmb — Rushing fumbles lost — the key ball-security stat for running backs. Below 1 per season is elite.

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.

SIS (Snap Impact Score) — Per-snap production z-scored within position group and era (2012+). Measures how much a player produced per opportunity, not raw volume.

VORP (Value Over Replacement) — Sum of max(0, season KV-H − positional replacement level) across a career. Measures career value above the minimum-roster baseline at each position.

Durability IQ — 0–100 score reflecting how many games a player played relative to peers at the same position in the same era. Adjusts for injury-shortened seasons.

Postseason Career

Rushing

Att1Yds17Y/A17.0

Receiving

Rec11Yds107TD1Y/R9.7

College Stats

PittsburghCollege listed; stat table pending import

College stats are not imported for this profile yet.

StatVault has the verified college attribution (Pittsburgh), 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

Doug AtkinsDE6y Bob HayesWR3y Herb AdderleyCB2y Lance AlworthWR2y Dick ButkusLB2y Gale SayersRB2y

Franchise Succession

the room, before and after

Mike opened the Chicago Bears TE lineage the corpus knows, and handed it to Emery Moorehead (1982–1988).

Mike Ditka 1961–1966Emery Moorehead 1982–1988Greg Olsen 2007–2010Martellus Bennett 2013–2015Cole Kmet 2020–2026

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.

Movementderived from season history

1972final season
Last recorded season with DAL
1969team change
Joined DAL (from PHI)
1967team change
Joined PHI (from CHI)
1961signing
Entered the NFL with CHI

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 75

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

A1961

B1962

B1963

B1964

C+1965

C1966

C1967

F1968

C1969

C+1971

C1972

Availability

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

94%

19611972

1967 · cause not documented · 64%

Durability IQ

Composite score across availability, IR frequency, and injury severity. See all →

Iron

Canton Monitor · HOF

Enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. See all →

✓

Enshrined

What carries the case

Era Quality (KV-H) 75%League Leads 25%

Monitor score 16 · components sum to the score (All-Pro ×12 · Pro Bowl ×3 · League Lead ×4 · ranks/era/longevity weighted).

Career Fingerprint

Statistical profile across 5 dimensions

Overall

Longevity88

Peak75

Accolades3

Consistency50

Per-Snap50

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
1961	1,076	76.9	1,027-49	60.4
1962	904	64.6	639-265	37.6
1963	794	56.7	473-321	27.8
1964	897	64.1	597-300	35.1
1965	454	32.4	170-284	10
1966	378	27	119-259	7
1967	274	30.4	170-104	10
1968	111	10.1	0-111	0
1969	268	22.3	6-262	0.3
1971	360	25.7	274-86	16.1
1972	198	14.1	14-184	0.8

Data: wikipedia:season-stats (CC-BY-SA, facts-only), wikipedia:pfhof-inductee-list · multi-source verified via the StatVault Oracle · updated 7/10/2026

Career Geography

Journeyman · 3 crestsLeague board →

Wore 3 distinct franchise crests across 12 seasons (1961–1972) — a true nomad. The crest trail:

CHI 1961–1966 PHI 1967–1968 DAL 1969–1972