2016 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Tight End Tiers 1.0
When it comes to tight end, it's all about Gronk and then everybody else. Our Dave Richard tells you where to find the hidden gems in his positional strategies and tiers.
By
Dave Richard
•
2 min read
You already know who the top tight end in Fantasy is.
If Rob Gronkowski were a running back he would have been a top-5 finisher last season. If he were a receiver he would have placed ninth among wideouts. The gargantuan is a supreme difference-maker - anyone who takes him in Round 1 is doing so to avoid any headaches at tight end and with the expectation of massive stats compared to other tight ends. This shouldn't come as any surprise, right?
The rest of the tight ends? It's complicated. There isn't a great second option to Gronk -- Jordan Reed is the consensus second-best tight end by default. Considering his injuries over his career and the Redskins' tougher schedule after finishing in first place last season, he's not necessarily a great pick. Round 4 is when tight ends will start getting attention again with Reed and the reliable Greg Olsen going onto rosters.
From there, bank on a big layoff until Round 7 when more come off the board, then a tight end will get picked every so often starting in Round 8. Ladarius Green and Coby Fleener are two high-upside sleepers who changed teams and will get some owners psyched, but everyone else on the list is just sort of there. No one's excited by Travis Kelce anymore, Delanie Walker's 1,000-yard season isn't remembered, there's a lot of doubting Gary Barnidge and Tyler Eifert isn't expected to be ready for Week 1 (which means drafting him requires a second tight end).
Once you get to this point in the draft, the object is to find a guy who can score. That's it. The average Fantasy point production for the Top 12 tight ends last season was 7.6 points per game. Find a guy who can regularly get you eight points after Round 4 and you're winning the battle.
There are a couple of tight ends who carry sleeper value late, including Eric Ebron in Detroit.
With Calvin Johnson retired, Ebron should pick up more targets and exceed career-highs set last season. Dwayne Allen is another low-risk sleeper. With Coby Fleener out of Indy and tight end aficionado Rob Chudzinski calling plays, Allen will at least step up as a goal-line threat from week to week and potentially morph into a guy who can carve out some decent yardage against anyone. Any owner who spends a second pick on a tight end is doing so with the intention of trading him after the first month of the football season.
Considering the lack of depth at tight end, that's not such a bad strategy to take when picking in Round 10-plus.
| Gronk! | Very Good | Good | Start-Worthy | Speculative |
| Round 1 | Round 4 | Rounds 7-8 | Rounds 9-10 | Rounds 11+ |
| Rob Gronkowski | Jordan Reed | Ladarius Green | Tyler Eifert | Julius Thomas |
| Greg Olsen | Delanie Walker | Antonio Gates | Jimmy Graham | |
| Travis Kelce | Zach Ertz | Dwayne Allen | ||
| Coby Fleener | Eric Ebron | Austin Seferian-Jenkins | ||
| Gary Barnidge | |
