Antonio Gates is an eight-time Pro Bowler, future Hall of Famer and is set to go down as one of the greatest tight ends and really, one of the greatest players, ever to don a San Diego Chargers uniform.
Gates, nearing his 35th birthday and set to embark on his 13th NFL season, is inching ever-closer to retirement, even after finishing the 2014 season with 69 receptions, 821 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Gates has only one year remaining on his contract and while he won't yet declare his NFL career over - though he said he's contemplated retirement since LaDainian Tomlinson called it quites in 2012 - he seems ready to scale back his workload.
"With injuries and whatnot, I played a little bit more than they expected me to play last season," Gates told Jenny Vrentas of MMQB. "I was playing the whole game. How I feel next year, it depends on how much volume they have me doing. I'd like to come in on third-and-7s, red zones, those situations. That's what my contribution is at anyway."
With Gates pondering calling it quits and preparing for a lightened workload, is 2015 the season that Ladarius Green finally takes over as the top tight end in San Diego?
"If Gates actually ends up playing a relatively limited role in 2015, Green should see a significant spike in value after catching just 19 passes on 23 targets for 226 yards and zero scores in 2014," writes Tom Carpenter of ESPN.
Green, 6-foot-6, 240-pounds, is a former fourth-round pick of the Chargers in the 2012 NFL Draft. In three NFL seasons he's appeared in 34 games, nabbing just 40 receptions for 658 yards and three touchdowns.
He's seemingly tabbed annually as a potential break-out candidate due to his prodigious physical gifts, but with Gates, the elder San Diego Statesman's continued elite play, Green simply hasn't seemed able to break into and stay in the starting lineup for the Chargers.
It could be wishful thinking, it could be wholly unwarranted, but with the likes of John Phillips and David Paulson the only other tight ends on the roster, barring a major addition in the 2015 NFL Draft, it seems there's no other player ready to take over for the world-class Gates, but Green.
As for Gates' future beyond next season, he remained adamant that he hadn't yet made a determination about how long he'd remain a member of the NFL brotherhood, but made it clear that it's a constant consideration.
"It could be one year for me, it could be four years, I don't know," Gates said, per Vrentas. "I just wonder how I'll handle it."
