The Tight End position might be the trickiest when it comes to who and when to take one at the position in your fantasy draft after last years struggles with former productive players such as Vernon Davis who suffered from just not being involved, Aaron Hernandez who battled injuries and as well star Jimmy Graham and Rob Gronkowski also couldn’t stay on the field for as much as we fantasy owners would have liked. So the question is, when should you take your starting tight end? In a lot of leagues some teams might take a high pick in the 2nd round or 3rd on an elite tight end like Saint’s Jimmy Graham or Rob Gronkowski but others might wait for the Jason Witten and Tony Gonzalez of the world, and you have the late sleepers who take the Kyle Rudolph and Dennis Pitta type players in the later rounds such as the 6th, 7th, or even 8th if you want to go that far.
Being in a keeper league myself, I personally like the mentality of getting your running backs and wide receivers first and then later on take what is left at the TE position.
Looking at the stats last year and the moves that occurred in free agency, yes you can spend a second round draft pick on Jimmy Graham or Gronkowski but how much more of an impact are they going to have over Jason Witten, Vernon Davis, and Tony Gonzalez? In most standard scoring ESPN leagues, Jimmy Graham who was the top scoring end finished with 155 points and behind him was a veteran in Tony Gonzalez who only had 9 points less and yet you can get Gonzalez much later than Graham. Why not get your Richardson and Ridley 1-2 punch and get your receivers and then take a tight end. Jason Witten led the Cowboys in receptions and broke the 1,000 yard mark in an offense that has no shortage of weapons, Witten averaged 7.7 points per game which is what you want in a solid starting tight end. Going to Gronkowski quickly, the leading tight end in touchdowns has had a number of surgeries and injuries that have effected his play a little bit but yet looking at the mock drafts, he is still going higher than Graham a lot of the time. If you can hold off on giving in to temptation and drafting Gronkowski who will most likely battle injuries this season like he does normally, then you can get your hands on a guy that I want to talk about next that has a big breakout performance potentially in the making and that is San Fransico 49ers Tight End Vernon Davis. One of the most disappointing seasons for any fantasy starter was held responsible by Davis, finishing with a total of 85 points and only 5 touchdowns. It clearly was shown that after Alex Smith went down, He just didn’t have the same chemistry with Kaepernick as he did Smith. Looking at the stats, before Smith got injured, Davis was averaging about 10 points a game and had all but 1 touchdown thrown to by Alex Smith. The reason for my confidence in Davis is because of two reasons. 1. In the playoffs last year, Davis and Kaepernick were on fire, Davis was the leading 49er receiver and was producing a great amount of points showing the potential that him and Kaepernick can have when on the field together and 2. Michael Crabtree tearing his Achilles Tendon makes Davis (Or Boldin), the best pass catcher on the team which will for sure increase his yards per game, receptions, and touchdowns in the red zone as Crabtree was very effective in that area. If you really want to wait later on then looking for touchdown machines like Dennis Pitta and Kyle Rudolph are your best options. Pitta will now be the go to guy in the red zone passing wise with Anquan Boldin being shipped off to the 49ers, and Kyle Rudolph who racked up 9 touchdowns last year will continue to dominant as long as Ponder is QB. Ponder and Rudolph connected for a lot last year and with the departure of Percy Harvin, Rudolph should be considered as a low end starter if you are in a pinch and want to bulk up your other positions. Aaron Hernandez of the Patriots to me is a bit of a risk because of all the injuries he suffers but he as well as Gronk has the potential to be a dominant fantasy starter. As shown at the Tight End position, most if not all of the starters or higher ranked players have a high risk-high reward situation but in my opinion the smarted thing to do is to wait it out and take a guy that you believe can produce at the same level as the top guys but at the same time go get the big time producers at the other positions.
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