Dynasty Fantasy Football Startup Mock: Finding value at tight end with T.J. Hockenson

Start-up Dynasty mock draft analysis focusing on tight ends

It's not news to me that I am the low guy on the top tight ends in Dynasty Fantasy Football. The highest ranked tight end in my most recent Dynasty Top 150 is Travis Kelce, and he's 38th. Mark Andrews and Kyle Pitts are the only other tight ends in my top 50, and Pitts is 50th. Consensus analyst rankings still have all three in the top 30. 

There's no one within two years of Kelce at any position ranked higher than him in my Top 150, and I have more concerns about Andrews and Pitts than I do Kelce. That's why I'm the low guy on them. But that's not the point. The point is to make a plan at tight end that doesn't include those three, because they're too expensive for me in a startup. This mock revealed a couple of paths. 

In this draft Kelce went in Round 1, while Andrews and Pitts went with the first five picks of Round 3. When Dallas Goedert went with the first pick of Round 4 it looked like all the tight ends might go higher than I valued them, but then came a reminder that is true about most Fantasy leagues. There are only so many people willing to pay up for a tight end. At some point the draft will hit a dry spot where none of the teams left without a tight end want to spend that much on what is left. In this draft that happened after Goedert was taken.

There was a two-round drought before TE5 went off the board, and I ended it by selecting my TE4, T.J. Hockenson. While I was thrilled with that value, he was far from the last tight end value of the draft. Chigoziem Okonkwo and Darren Waller both went in Round 10. Greg Dulcich and David Njoku in Round 11. Tyler Higbee and Irv Smith didn't get selected until after pick 180. 

Most of those guys aren't going to be very good. But that's also true of most tight ends. When the bar for starting is as low as it is at this position, you can reasonably hope to get low-end starting production in the final rounds of most drafts. In other words, if a value like Hockenson doesn't fall in your lap, you might as well wait until all of the good players are gone at all the other positions. 

Dave Richard and I broke this mock draft down live on Fantasy Football Today Dynasty. You can watch here:

Subscribe to the new Fantasy Football Today Dynasty podcast here.

The analysts who participated in this mock draft are:

R.J. White, CBS Sports
Jacob Gibbs, Sportsline
Adam Aizer, CBS Sports
Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports
Jay Felicio, Front Yard Fantasy
Dave Richard, CBS Sports
Casey Symonds
Zach Berger, Fantasy in Frames
Thomas Shafer, CBS Sports
Zach Brook, CBS Sports
Bobby LaMarco, Razzball

Here are the results: