Fantasy Football 2014 Doubletake: Two Writers Talk Skill Position Sleepers

TIGHT ENDS

Joe: Greg Olsen is undervalued in just about every draft, but he’s not a true sleeper here. And Zach Ertz? I think the cat’s out of the bag on that one when it comes to breakout picks. Ladarius Green? He might be the worst-kept secret at this point.

Anyway, the real deep sleeper at tight end is Houston Texans TE Ryan Griffin or C.J. Fiedorowicz, who is the least known of all of the possible breakout candidates at the position. Owen Daniels is out of the way, but the bad news for Griffin is that he still has to compete against Garrett Graham. Still, Griffin has better tools than Graham despite being a late-round pick, and Graham wasn’t exactly efficient last year. Although he was hurt by poor QB play, a catch rate of 55.1% and an average of 6.1 yards per target doesn’t inspire confidence. Meanwhile, Griffin had 8.7 yards per target, averaged more yards per reception, and had a higher catch rate. He was more efficient across the board, and TEs are seen as safety valves for poor quarterbacks. Griffin is a risk given that he’s behind Graham and playing on a team with poor QBs, but he has plenty of reward as a sleeper in deep leagues. I would monitor him closely, but the players in the above paragraph have safer situations and are thus preferable targets. 

J.P.: I think the stars are aligned for Atlanta’s Levine Toilolo to burst onto the fantasy scene in 2014. A lot of people have forgotten about the Falcons after last year’s dismal showing — largely due to injuries. Everyone on the Atlanta offense should be healthy this season, including Julio Jones and Roddy White. That’ll leave all kinds of room over the middle for the 6-foot-8 Toilolo to eat up what used to be Tony Gonzalez’s production. His potential between the 20s is exciting, but it’s his presense in the red zone with that size that makes me think Toilolo can emerge as one of the top scoring tight ends in the league this year.