Packers’ Tonyan adds name to impressive tight end list

If NFL fans around the country didn’t know who Robert Tonyan was before Green Bay’s game Monday night, they certainly do now.

The Packers’ third-year tight end caught three touchdown passes – he had all of two in his career entering this season – in Green Bay’s convincing 30-16 victory over Atlanta.

Tonyan has been a revelation this season, with 13 receptions for 173 yards and a league-leading five TDs (he had 14 catches for 177 yards in 27 career games in his first two years).

On Monday night, he became the 47th tight end since at least 1961 to record three receiving touchdowns in a game (and the 63rd time overall), according to pro-football-reference.com.

Tonyan now has as many games with three TDs than Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez, he of the 111 career touchdowns, who did it in his sixth season with Kansas City in 2002.

Another Hall of Famer, Kellen Winslow, has the most three TD games for a tight end in NFL history, with four. Todd Christensen, Antonio Gates, Rob Gronkowski and another Hall of Famer in Shannon Sharpe each own three such contests.

Tonyan had the first game with three receiving touchdowns by a tight end since … well, two weeks earlier, when the Rams’ Tyler Higbee did it in Philadelphia.

Before this season, the last tight end to accomplish the feat was Tonyan’s teammate with the Packers, Marcedes Lewis, who did it in 2017 with Jacksonville.

There were 12 such games in the 2010s, with Gronkowski having three of those (2010, 2014, 2015) along with Dwayne Allen (2016), Martellus Bennett (2016), Jordan Cameron (2013), Larry Donnell (2014), Tyler Eifert (2015), Jermichael Finley (2011), Gates (2014) and Julius Thomas (2014).

Tonyan’s 98 receiving yards were the most for a tight end in a three TD game since Gronkowski had 149 on Oct. 26, 2014.

Only two other Packers tight ends have a three-touchdown game since at least 1962: Finley, who did it at Chicago on Sept. 25, 2011 (seven catches, 85 yards) in a 27-17 win over the Bears, accounting for all three Packers TDs, and Keith Jackson (five catches, 76 yards), in the 1996 season opener at Tampa Bay on Sept. 1, a 34-3 Green Bay rout.

Paul Coffman is the only Packers tight end to have more receiving yards in a multiple-touchdown game in that span. He had six catches for 124 yards with two TDs vs. Washington in a 48-47 Packers win Oct. 17, 1983. Tonyan’s 98 yards are tied for 24th-most by a Green Bay tight end since at least ’62.

Of course, the season is only 1/4 over.

Here are the other AFL/NFL tight ends with three TD games since 1961:

Mack Alston (1975), Mark Campbell (2004), Billy Cannon (1967), Dave Casper (1981), Rich Caster (1972), Raymond Chester (1970), Christensen (1983 twice, 1986), Dallas Clark (2009), Ben Coates (1995), Alge Crumpler (2006), Vernon Davis (2009), Ken Dilger (1997 – his only TDs that season), Mike Ditka (1961, 1963), Billy Joe Dupree (1973), Willie Frazier (1965), Jean Fugett (1976), Gates (2004, 2005, 2014), Jimmie Giles (1985), Gonzalez (2002), Eric Green (1990), Steve Heiden (2004), Jackson (1989, 1996), Damone Johnson (1988), Johnny Mitchell (1993), Greg Olsen (2009), Derrick Ramsey (1984), Pete Retzlaff (1965 twice in November), Pat Richter (1968), Sharpe (1993, 1996, 2003), Mickey Shuler (1985), Jerry Smith (1967, 1969), Bob Trumpy (1969), Joe Walton (1962 twice), Jim Whalen (1967) and Winslow (1981, 1982 twice and 1983).

In addition, three tight ends have done it in a playoff game: Casper (1977), Gronkowski (2012) and Travis Kelce (2020).