The two most popular taglines regarding the tight-end position this year are: “top-heavy” and “weak”. The first notion I’ll totally buy. I won’t be surprised if a good number of championship squads feature either Jimmy Graham (ADP8, TE1) or Rob Gronkowski (ADP27 – and trending up, TE2) or BOTH! Factoring league settings, roster construction and draft slot, a potentially dominate strategy is to grab both of these guys with your first two picks. Not only do you give yourself a weekly top tight-end performance, you get elite production from your flex position too.
After the “Big Two”, there are only two other tight-ends with top 50 ADP’s: Julius Thomas (ADP27) and Jordan Cameron (ADP50). After these guys come of the board the tight-end position gets a bit murky. This is where average fantasy football players (and even mainstream ‘experts’) buy the lazily constructed “weak depth” storyline. However, there are a good number of young players, whom admittedly have their flaws, that could pay nice dividends at their going cost. Jordan Reed (ADP76), Greg Olsen (ADP86), Kyle Rudolph (ADP94) and Charles Clay (ADP117) should all finishes in the top-3 for targets in their respective teams. In Olsen’s case, he is far-and-away Cam Newton’s most reliable pass-catching option.
There are also some potential difference makers to be had late (after the 10th round): Travis Kelce (ADP174) – flashed some big time wheels on a long catch and run TD in the team’s first pre-season game; Coby Fleener (ADP183) – has been running with the first-team offense all camp (also just happens to be Andrew Luck’s Stanford homeboy); Joesph Fauria (ADP213) – all he does is catch touchdowns.
2014 Rankings: Tight Ends | |||
Composite | Player | Rage | Ginger |
TE1 | Jimmy Graham | 1 | 1 |
TE2 | Rob Gronkowski | 2 | 4 |
TE3 | Julius Thomas | 4 | 2 |
TE4 | Jordan Cameron | 3 | 3 |
TE5 | Vernon Davis | 5 | 5 |
TE6 | Jason Witten | 7 | 6 |
TE7 | Greg Olsen | 6 | 8 |
TE8 | Kyle Rudolph | 9 | 7 |
TE9 | Zach Ertz | 8 | 10 |
TE10 | Dennis Pitta | 10 | 11 |
TE11 | Martellus Bennett | 13 | 9 |
TE12 | Jordan Reed | 11 | 12 |
TE13 | Ladarius Green | 18 | 13 |
TE14 | Dwayne Allen | 15 | 16 |
TE15 | Charles Clay | 12 | 20 |
TE16 | Tyler Eifert | 20 | 15 |
TE17 | Coby Fleener | 22 | 14 |
TE18 | Garrett Graham | 14 | 23 |
TE19 | Eric Ebron | 16 | 21 |
TE20 | Heath Miller | 19 | 18 |
TE21 | Antonio Gates | 17 | 22 |
TE22 | Jared Cook | 24 | 17 |
TE23 | Delanie Walker | 23 | 19 |
TE24 | Owen Daniels | 26 | 24 |
TE25 | Ryan Griffin | 21 | 31 |
TE26 | Richard Rodgers | 25 | 28 |
TE27 | Levine Toilolo | 27 | 26 |
TE28 | Tim Wright | 30 | 25 |
TE29 | Brandon Pettigrew | 31 | 27 |
TE30 | Austin Seferian-Jenkins | 28 | 30 |
TE31 | Andrew Quarless | 29 | 29 |