Fantasy Football: Tight Ends

Need help with preparing for your fantasy football league? The Fantasy Guru is here once again to give you a few tips on how to play the crazy game of fantasy football.

Over the past few weeks I have been taking you through each of the offensive positions and how to prepare for your draft using my mid-may rankings as a reference. We’ve already covered the quarterback, running back and wide receiver positions and this week in the final part of this series we’ll be looking at the tight end position once again using the tiering system.

The tight end position begins strangely with both tiers 1 and 2 consisting of only one player each. Tier 1 is made up of Rob Gronkowski who exploded onto the scene in 2011. Gronkowski is in a class of his own and with Tom Brady under center and the structure of the Patriots offense won’t be changing any time soon. Draft him in the third round with confidence. Tier 2 is the home of Saints tight end Jimmy Graham. Graham doesn’t have quite the explosive production of Gronkowski but should give you solid numbers week in and week out. Draft him in the late fourth to early fifth round.

Tier 3 is for the tight ends who should give you consistent if unspectacular production. This year this tier numbers two player – Jermichael Finley and Jason Witten. With Finley this comes with a caveat – there will be the odd week where he disappears but there’ll also be weeks of massive production. On any given week he could be a buy low or a sell high but you draft him because he will retain high value all season. As for Witten, he’s boring ut reliable and at this point that’s what you want from a tight end. Draft in the early sixth round.

In Tier 4 things spread out – Antonio Gates, Vernon Davis, Fred Davis. You get an idea here of how shallow the tight end position is as there are all sorts of question marks at this point. Gates injury history makes him a liability on any given week and you should try and couple him with a steady lower TE as insurance but when he is playing he will usually give you big numbers. With the two Davis’s, both are still playing like they’re raw rookies but have amazing talent. A lot of potential upside but also a rather low floor. Draft the players on this tier in rounds seven and eight.

By the time you get to Tier 5 you’re dealing with players who you shouldn’t expect much from but have potential to give you a big season if things go right – Brandon Pettigrew, Aaron Hernandez, Jared Cook, Tony Gonzalez, Jacob Tamme. Gonzo looks out of place here and probably deserves more respect as he always seems to be around the ball in the red zone but due to the unpredictability of red zone production this makes him unreliable for fantasy purposes. With Pettigrew, Hernandez and Cook you have players with top talent but need to become more involved in their offenses to be drafted any higher than this. As for Tamme, he’s here solely because of Peyton Manning and is very much a personal preference kind of pick. Draft these players in the ninth to twelfth rounds.

Tier 6 is the final level for tight ends and consists of mostly players you’ll find on the waiver wire in stand leagues but who could be worth a late round pickup – Dustin Keller, Brent Celek, Greg Olsen, Coby Fleener, Jermaine Gresham, Dallas Clark, Kellen Winslow. If I were you I’d leave these guys on waivers in 10 team leagues but in 12 team leagues if you like one of these players I suggest you draft them late to ensure you get them. These are the players where there are very few guarantees and a high likelihood that most weeks you’ll get 4 points or less.

So there we go – all four offensive positions have now been covered and you should now be well on your way to being prepared for draft day. Next week there’ll be a special double feature for you as I’ll be releasing my top 200 rankings as well as a full 10 team mock draft so be sure to check back in next Tuesday.

Until next week this is the Fantasy Guru signing off.

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