Monday, June 10, 2013

Something Different: A TE battle

Hello once again football fans. Today we’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of the normal fantasy analysis we’re going to talk about TEs. Now we all know the elite TEs: Rob Gronkowski, Jimmy Graham, Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, etc… But after them, who do you trust fantasy wise? And that’s what are going to talk about today. John and I selected two TEs that we like and explain why we like them. Take a look.

Q: Choose two Tier-2 Tight Ends you predict to be most helpful to fantasy owners this year; Dennis Pitta, Vernon Davis, Kyle Rudolph, Greg Olsen, Owen Daniels, Antonio Gates, Martellus Bennett, and Brandon Myers.

John: Give me Myers and Pitta. In six games under new offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell (not counting Week 17, where Caldwell elected to rest his starters), Pitta grabbed 25 receptions for 344 yards and 5 touchdowns. Extrapolated over a full season, that’s 67 rec, 917 yds, and an astounding 13 Tds! Flacco looked Pitta’s way early and often during the 2013 playoffs, and he’ll no longer have to compete for those seam passes from playoff hero Anquan Boldin, who was shipped to the 49ers. All things considered, Pitta seems perfectly aligned for a breakout season in Baltimore.

Myers, on the other hand, has already experienced his “breakout,” catching 79 passes for the lowly Oakland Raiders. Now, he heads to Eli Manning and the New York Giants, who should offer a more competitive environment for Myers to play in. The Giants are certainly expecting to play at a high level this year, after their disappointing season last year, becoming one of 14 teams to win the Super Bowl then fail to make the playoffs the next year. In addition to a competitive spirit, the Giants also have experience helping tight ends fulfill their potential, as Tom Coughlin took then- bust Martellus Bennett and helped him have a career year last season, catching 55 passes and 5 Tds. Myers could see his catches fall slightly, but under Manning and Coughlin’s tutelage, 60- 70 catches with 7-9 TDs isn’t out of the realm of possibility. With a current ADP of 134 (11.10 in standard leagues), this is a definite upside pick.

Brandon: As for me I like Kyle Rudolph and Greg Olsen. You could say Rudolph’s production will falter with the addition of Greg Jennings and Cordarelle Patterson, but I don’t think so. Most of Rudolph’s fantasy value is as a redzone target. And he showed that by pulling in 9 TDs. The Vikings will always be a run first team as long as Adrian Peterson is in the backfield. But this is the year in which Christian Ponder has to prove his worth, and he has the pieces in place to do that, and look for Kyle Rudolph to be a big part of that.

Greg Olsen on the other hand is quickly becoming Cam Newton’s go to guy, after Steve Smith of course. And since the Panther’s didn’t exactly add any world beaters to supplement their pass attack, I expect Olsen’s value can only go up. Since Cam Newton has arrived, Olsen has only gotten more and more targets, going from 89 to 104. This next year won’t be different, with Steve Smith drawing all the attention, don’t be surprised to see Olsen open across the middle of the field.


And with that we conclude our TE discussion. We at Fantasy Sparks realize they are many other talented TEs, and as such we likely left someone off the list. So leave a comment below letting us know what TE you think will be good next year (fantasy wise of course), and why you think that. Until next time, best wishes.

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