Fantazzle Fantasy Football Games - 2009 Tight End Rankings

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Fantasy Football Tight Ends – Overall
I’m not a big fan of taking tight ends early, even Tier 1′s (T1). There is definitely a difference between a T1 and a T2, but its not big enough to use a pick on them when I can get a #3 running back or wide receiver. The great thing about tight ends is if you don’t get one of the top 3, then you can wait until mid to late rounds to get your starter because there are a lot of guys in T2/T3/T4 that will not disappoint. All of them have little risk. Tight ends don’t seem to get hurt that often nor do they totally bomb on you. A down year by a TE won’t kill you because A) they usually aren’t far from expectations and B) they aren’t major point contributors to begin with. Save your early to mid round picks stocking up on RBs and WRs and take a TE later in the draft (~10th pick). While there are 5 tiers, the fall off is small and I’d be happy with T1 to T3 and if that fails, I’ll take a T4 and an upside T5.

Fantasy Football Tight End Scoring
Standard. 6pts TD; 1pt every 10 yards; -2pts fumble (no points for receptions)

TIER 1 Fantasy Football Tight Ends
1 Antonio Gates
2 Jason Witten
TIER 2 Tight Ends
3 Greg Olsen – Trendy sleeper pick. Deserves all the attention.
4 Dallas Clark
5 Tony Gonzalez – I’m staying away…he could be #1 again or #10.
TIER 3 Tight Ends
6 Kellen Winslow – Lots of potential. Has been a very good value pick in all drafts.
7 John Carlson – With Hasselback back, he should be even better than last year.
8 Chris Cooley – He’ll have more TDs this year. Last year was an aberration.
TIER 4 Tight Ends
9 Dustin Keller
10 Owen Daniels – Trendy pick. I don’t like him to do much more than last year.
11 Visanthe Shiancoe – Could be a great sleepe with Favre.
TIER 5 Tight Ends
12 Vernon Davis – I like him more this year than ever before…but he’ll probably burn me again.
13 Brent Celek – Philly has a lot of weapons this year. He’ll get 6 TDs, but very little yards.
14 Tony Scheffler – Cutler was his best friend in Denver. He’ll be avg w/out him.
15 Kevin Boss – You can tell this guy is blocker first.
16 Ben Watson – Who knows….he could be a great sleeper.
17 Zach Miller – No TDs will get you this ranking.
18 Jeremy Shockey
19 Donald Lee
20 Todd Heap – I’m a Ravens fan, but I’ll take him over H Miller or Fasano or Scaife. More upside.

Fantasy Football Tight Ends – Conclusion
Roughly 11 decent Tight Ends on the board. There are differences, but the scoring gaps are much smaller for TEs than other positions. Save your pick on a RB or WR and take a Tight End later in your draft. I recommend a T2 or T3. If your drafts are like mine, nearly every team has one TE by round ~8 giving you the luxury of waiting much later to take your TE since most people don’t draft two of them until very late.

Good luck to you all! Wide Receiver rankings tomorrow.

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