Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Fred Arbanas had some sort of All-Pro or Pro Bowl recognition his first six seasons. He only played nine seasons and does not have career numbers that would make people argue he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Based on what I have read and seen, I believe he was similar to Mark Bavaro.

For those of you who saw him play, how good was he?

King Kong wrote:Fred Arbanas had some sort of All-Pro or Pro Bowl recognition his first six seasons. He only played nine seasons and does not have career numbers that would make people argue he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Based on what I have read and seen, I believe he was similar to Mark Bavaro.

For those of you who saw him play, how good was he?

I don't remember any similarity between Arbanas and Bavaro. As I recall, Arbanas was the classic "third tackle" type of tight end. I'm not looking up his stats, so this might be mistaken, but I don't think he ever caught many passes, despite playing all those years in the "pass-happy" AFL. Rather than Bavaro, I'd say he was more like Don Warren (Redskins in the Joe Gibbs era) -- better than Warren, certainly, but more that type of player.

I had gotten the idea he could run, that he was not a stiff plodder like Brandon Pettigrew or Kyle Brady. Arbanas did have a good average per catch. So with that, and the understanding that he was a top notch blocker, I thought a comparison to Bavaro is fair. Maybe it isn't, though. It might be that Arbanas is a tier or two below Bavaro depending upon how many tiers exist.

From everyone's favorite site: Wikipedia

An interesting number is his percentage of catches for a Touchdown: more than 17%
Jerry Rice, for example, is just a tad over 13%

So, given all this data, it seems Fred Arbanas was pretty darn good.

If nothing else, it can probably be said that he is the best one-eyed Tight End to ever play the game?

Career highlights and awards
6x American Football League All-Star games selection (1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967)
5x AFL All-Star (1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967)
6x TSN All-AFL selection (1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967)
AFL All-Time Team
AFL Champion 1962, 1966, 1969
World Champion, 1969
Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame
Missouri Sports Hall of Fame
Career NFL statistics
Receptions 198
Receiving Yards 3,101
Touchdowns 34

oldecapecod 11 wrote:From everyone's favorite site: Wikipedia

An interesting number is his percentage of catches for a Touchdown: more than 17%
Jerry Rice, for example, is just a tad over 13%

So, given all this data, it seems Fred Arbanas was pretty darn good.

Mike Vrabel's percentage of catches for a Touchdown is 100% (10 for 10). I would guess Vrabel's percentage is higher than Rice's because Rice had a few more total catches than Vrabel.

Arbanas was a very good TE, but to the original point I think that Arbanas was more valued as a blocker than a pass-catching threat. He was big for his era, but the Chiefs didn't run their offense through him like the Colts did with Mackey and the Cards did with Jackie Smith (or the Giants did with Bavaro).

Trivia: Who was the 2nd team All-Time AFL TE? My original guess was wrong.

Tommy Bell apparently always swore that the "glass eye" story about Arbanas was true, and I hope it was, but even if it wasn't, what a great tale!

http://books.google.com/books?id=O7iRg0 ... ye&f=false

The eye injury stemmed from Arbanas getting sucker punched by some guy while he was walking with a teammate on a Kansas City street on December 10, 1964. The guy was likely drunk, considering that fact that he sarcastically grumbled something about "big football players" before he then smacked Arbanas. He got away and was presumably never caught.

by Bryan » Wed Nov 05, 2014 12:52 pm
"...Trivia: Who was the 2nd team All-Time AFL TE? My original guess was wrong."

I guessed Todd and was wrong.
I looked so I won't spoil it for someone else.
There are those here who like to pretend they know it all so let them look
and then look in the mirror in the morning.

I guessed Billy Cannon and was wrong.

I'm thinking Dave Kocourek was probably the 2nd team tight end.