Antonio Gates is 37 and has played 15 NFL seasons. Chargers General Manager Tom Telesco admitted Thursday he isn’t sure what the future holds for the tight end.
“We’ll probably let some time go a little bit after the season I’ll sit down with Antonio and just kind of talk to him and see what his thoughts are, what he’s thinking and see where our thoughts are and what we’re thinking,” Telesco said, via video from Fernando Ramirez of NBC7 San Diego. “I don’t have an answer for that right now. Honestly, he is one of the greatest Chargers of all time and to see a Hall of Famer this year really accept a secondary role, you don’t see that very often and see mentoring our young players on the practice field and still playing at a really good level. We saw that when we’ve got two weeks to go in the season where we have to win two more games and we really need him, and he steps up and plays at the same level as he had before. He’s a special, special guy.”
Gates accepted a secondary role this season, playing less than 50 percent of the snaps. He caught only 30 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns.
For his career, he has 927 receptions for 11,508 yards and 114 touchdowns.