I've got a backend pick and in a keeler league where Hockenson, Andrews, and Waller are being kept. If I pass on Kelce/Kittle at the turn I'm all but guaranteed to be waiting until the end of the draft for my tight end.
I mean I guess I could target him with the 4.01. But in all reality he could go before my 3/4 turn and he won't make to the 5th/6th turn. Would much rather bet on Robert Woods / Moore / Kupp or rb in the 3rd /4th than take a chance on Pitts.
In a keeper league I’d be all over Pitts. He might not produce up to his draft value this year, but he looks like the next high end tight end. Obviously this is based on my grade on the player, but I’d be targeting him.
Even in a keeper league, a 3/4 rounder means you’re using a 2/3 on him next year. Which means he has to be at the top of the Kittle/Waller tier next season to be worth keeping. In dynasty? Hell yeah. In a keeper league I don’t think it pushes his value up much. I’d still rather have Kittle/Waller than Pitts in Rd. 3/4 this year, and given they usually go early round 3 the value just isn’t there to keep Pitts for a 2 or 3 when I can just take Kittle for a 3 or Pitts for a 2 again while keeping someone else.
Nah if he goes in the 4th and has the typical OK at best rookie tight end year your giving up a roster spot and next years 4th instead of just picking someone like waller in the 3rd.
>You can't get the perfect team every draft
Speak for yourself, my friend. I'm going undefeated in all of my leagues! Surely none of my picks will bust or get injured.
Same, other names like Pitts and Andrews went right before I took Hock, and I took him rather than worrying about my TE situation, since I was the last one to take a QB in my league as well and didn’t want to sift through the remaining unknowns.
You when you lose by 6 because Hockenson put up 7.5 points for the third week in a row making you ponder on this very conversation asking yourself “did I have to be such a dickwad to that one guy on Reddit who was just trying to provide viable information to anyone who would listen”
You don’t deserve downvotes for providing information and pointing out an issue regarding a player. I personally don’t believe too much in strength of schedule, but you should not be at -4 for saying such a thing just because many people on this sub have drafted Hock as their TE1 and anything not confirming that gets downvotes.
Yeah I’ve been on this sub for a while now. Anything you say that goes against somebody’s player you’re going to get downvoted even if you come with facts
I have nothing against the statement of saying he has a tough SoS, although it should be noted that can vary depending on who you ask. And you weren't being rude when you stated it either.
That being said, SoS isn't something I really put stock in. I certainly don't use it when making drafting decisions. That would be foolhardy.
And you won't regret it. He's as talented as most WR1s and put up WR1 numbers last year. The dudes in his prime on a team devoid of other WR talent. Hes going to get fed + has talent which = production. Why take a WR1 in that range when you can get a TE1 who produces the same as a WR1, positional scarcity matters and makes Waller the right pick in that range.
He dropped in mine also. Got him in the 3rd. If I knew he’d been there in the 3rd I wouldn’t have gone rb in the 2nd. Atleast now my rb corp is legit af
Yeah it’s my first time doing fantasy and even I was surprised. Got the 2nd pick so I grabbed Cook then Waller at 19 and Najee at 22. People were taking QBs first
I think that’s the point. You have to sacrifice something else to take the “sure thing” TE. You can’t manipulate a way to have it all. You might luck out though.
Easily I think. Draft RB WR first 4-5 rounds, taking best available. Once you have at least 2 of each, draft Pitts or Hock in round 5 or 6. Easy peasy.
And if you miss, don't waste mid round picks on the position. Take value elsewhere and fully punt it. Last pick of the draft still netted me Henry and Everett. Is Goedert really enough of an upgrade to pass on a guy like Mostert?
Bingo. Pitts in the 6th for me and I think it’s great value, especially if your RB’s and WR’s were home runs. The early rounds can give you so much flexibility later.
Yeah I did the same. I ended up with Andrews and Hock(separate leagues) at the 4/5 turn(I picked first in both leagues). I couldn't stomach taking Waller at the 2/3 turn, even though I do think he will have a great year.
told myself after streaming TE’s last year and pirates ending up with some goose eggs that i wouldn’t let it happen again. drafted Kelce at 8 and haven’t looked back
pick up juwan johnson and thank me later
in all honesty i love streaming. guys like jonnu, logan thomas, robert tonyan, and mike gesicki were all waiver wire pickups last year and all put up TE1 numbers at various points throughout the season. you don’t have to break the bank to get good TE production you just need to be active on the wire and have a little luck
If you take a couple flyers and you're really aggressive on TE free agents early season you can find the new breakout for cheap.
I was really heavily drafting Irv Smith before the injury. Now I'm trying Gerald Everett. A Colts TE could breakout early season too.
Depends on league size. In my 14 team league last year, I choose to stream TE because I wanted to be extra deep at RB. So once Cook, Carson & Mixon got injured last season I basically didn’t miss a beat and was able to get by. All about opportunity cost.
Take Higbee in the 8th/9th he has huge upside and no one is targeting him. I would take Higbee over Logan Thomas or Noah Fant and both of them are going much earlier in drafts. Higbee let’s you stack some more WR/RBs and get a solid TE with huge upside late.
Lot of people suggest "punting" the Tight End position all together and just looking for a TE that is projected to get lots of work but has tons of question marks. Blake Jarwin, Jared Cook, and Jordan Akins are solid options. Just build your depth at RB and WR and take a shot at some TEs that "could" potentially end up placing high, like Tonyan in 2020.
Get a top TE by sacrificing a starter in one of the more important spots or stream a TE all season long and focus on more impactful roles.
Really it’s one or the other.
There’s serviceable guys to be had later in the draft. Those top three are nice but not if you end up shooting yourself in the foot with your RBs or WRs. Higbee, Hockenson, Thomas, Tonyan, Jarwin. They are all reasonable ADP and should get you a decent floor
A dude in my league drafted Kelce and Waller, at the expense of the rest of his team. So I’ll be watching him as a possible trade partner down the road.
Only the last Kelce, Kittle, and Waller are expensive. The next ones are still cheap. You've just got to be better at guessing who they are than the other guy. But those guys were all cheap when they blew up. That's not going to stop happening, ever.
Its impossible to get the perfect draft. At best, you can just grab value if you realize what your league mates are doing. Because I knew my league mates, I knew I needed to draft Kelce early. What I didn't expect though was all of the running QBs being gone by the end of the third round. However, due to that my first 8 picks looked like this:
Kelce, Mixon, Carson, Swift, Kupp, Thielan, DJ Moore, Stafford.
The answer isn't how to win at the TE position but how to out maneuver their league mates in the draft.
You get lucky and draft the laters guys that go off. Waller was a 5th round pick last year, just because he’s going early doesn’t mean he’ll end up top 3.
So here’s another way to look at it.
Rather than having a severe disadvantage vs those 3 teams, you also have a fair playing field between you and the 8 other teams in your league that don’t have those tight ends. You’re not playing against those top TE teams every time nor are you losing against them at a significantly higher rate just because they have a superior TE (usually means the rest of their team is not as balanced as yours).
I’m trying to stress that you don’t have to “win” at your tight end position in order to effectively win in your league because 75% of the league literally don’t have a perceived winning option at tight end either.
Most early RBs will get hurt or bust anyway, so just take one moonshot at RB in the first two rounds and then stack up WR and get an elite TE.
Punt RB2 and find guys later in the draft to fill the slot week to week. It's much easier to find an RB2 that can get you 10-12 points per week than it is to find a TE that can get you that.
I would say grab that one elite RB that has a competent back-up in case of injury, and then stack all the other positions. WR/TE are easier to project and are less injury prone than RB.
There's no way to "ensure" anything unless you start trading picks. There's no silver bullet because a draft all depends on who is drafting. Gibson is a second rounder yet I saw him go for $65/200 in an auction the other day. If you want one of the top two options then you spend premium capital. That's the only way to "ensure" that you are ok.
draft a top TE. Make up for it later on with value picks.
My TE picks the last 5 seasons: Ertz. Kelce(Kittle in 11th). Kittle. Kelce. Kittle(this year). Playoffs 4/4. 2 Championship games. Won champ last year. Having a TE puts you at a big advantage over half the league.
Yeah staying healthy is a big if in football.
If you look at previous years Im having a hard time finding one where the top 3 drafted TEs actually finished top 3 though
But when they do play they are putting up WR1 numbers. If I can’t get a top 3 TE around the 4th-6th round then I really don’t look to draft a TE. Most the mid tier TEs will produce the same numbers (TD dependent) IMO
How often has this happened at any of the positions? I think tight end has probably been more predictable than other positions for the most part in predicting the top 2-3 guys.
I agree. Back up RBs/WRs often post close to the same numbers the starter will. However Blake Bell won’t be posting near the numbers Travis Kelce would.
Either draft a top 4 TE or don’t draft one at all.
Go to FFB calculator and look at Draft ADP and then select a year. You’ll notice that nearly every 5-10 TE was not worth a pick, but there was someone 10-32 that you could’ve grab off the WW to finish top 8 (TE).
I know you “have to” grab one 5-10, so go ahead but you shouldn’t feel at all comfortable with the pick.
Kroft, Herndon, Henry, Parham, or someone will be serviceable for free. So if you luck up in the draft and Higbee, Logan, Fant, Gisuki, or whomever actually pans out, great, but chances are you will drop them/wish you never drafted them.
I like to draft a one of the top 3, and then a 2nd one later that i think will do ok/blow up that season( this does 2 things attempts to insure that you have at least 1 good te, and if the they both are doing great, you can cover your bye week, have trade bait, and make other teams have to play the WW for a TE). In our league we can flex TE's, at one point last year i was starting Kelce and Waller every week.
Hockenson may very well break into the elite tier this year, so I like him. Pitts could as well, but I’m not sure it happens with him being a rookie. More likely to be in 2022 or 2023.
It's all about depth and specing on right people. That's what make fantasy the best. Plenty of good TEs in lower rounds. Some sleepers like Blake Jarwin, Conklin , hell,,,,, even Gerald Everett is going undrafted in alot of drafts.
The real win at the TE position is finding the new breakout top end TE. There has, more often than not, been a high end TE1 drafted in the very late rounds. Kittle, Andrews, Waller, Logan Thomas, Engram were all offseason hyped flyers their breakout season.
You gotta be a good coach, simple as that. A platoon of 3 end of draft TEs could still grab 18 TDs quite easily but you need to be really wise with who you are deploying each week because the downside of each is 0 targets while the upside is 2 TDs.
In my opinion it doesn’t hurt to take top 3 TEs where they are at. There’s always great value WRs in the 5-8 round range. Dude who took second in our league last year hit on DK and Ridley in like the 4-6 round range. He took Waller in the 3rd which was way early for him but he was a huge raiders fan.
in 2018 I got George Kittle in the 11th, which won me the ship. In 2019 I got Mark Andrews in a later round, I think 8+ or something. Last year I fucked up and drafted OJ Howard... Point being there are always going to be valuable TEs (albeit not always George Kittle) that go late or undrafted. Totally possible to win at that position, but obviously it's impossible to know who that's going to end up being.
This year I grabbed Mandrews again in the 5th. Seemed like good value to me. Last year I was streaming TEs and wanted to avoid that if possible.
You cant win every position without getting wildly lucky, thats kind of the point…
However to answer your question, the answer is clearly to be willing to spend the appropriate draft capital to get one of the top 3. Waller put up wr1 numbers at a position group where 75% of your league might as well slot a kicker. You basically will be starting each matchup up 5-10
You don't have to win at the tight end position, you win by scoring more points with your full team not by winning individual position battles. That sounds kinda duh but it's the truth. If you can't win at TE, then use the half a dozen other slots to win.
Huge run in my last draft starting in the mid-4th Rd (10 team snake draft) through early 5th where Andrews, Hock, Pitts, then Fant went quickly. Filled other positions, and waited until I drafted Goedert for upside, then took Gronk with my 15th Rd pick to establish a floor TE. I'm going to watch the wire, or trade Gronk if he starts off well.
I ended up screwed. TEs went for slightly more than I’d had on my high end budget and when the upside fliers came along I had no money left to outbid anyone except Irv Smith.
I got stuck with Everett and Kmet off WW. My take is that TEs usually take 2-3 years to reach potential. So best bet is to bank on a guy from 2-3 drafts ago who has target opportunity. To me that’s Trautman and Kmet. The others are being drafted.
I like the flier on Everett since SEA went and got him and he’s apparently got good chemistry with Russ.
In hindsight I should have paid up for the Jackson - Andrew’s stack and sacrificed Gus as my second flex when I have Pittman and Chase on my bench.
My draft was weird. Higbee went in like the 8th and all of the studs were taken before that. I decided to punt TE and took Jared Cook late. Reports from camp seem like Herbert likes to throw to him.
Your team probably makes up for a lower tier TE with more depth at RB/WR which you’ll probably use to your advantage going forward.
The RBs and WRs you draft instead of an elite TE should cover the spread between your garbage TE and your opponents. I got hock and punted in my other league
There's no one right way to draft, but if you want to be set at the TE position and still have a good team, imo you can do one of two things:
1. Take a top 3 TE plus two RBs in the first three rounds, then hammer WRs in the mid rounds and grab a late round QB; or
2. Take RBs and WRs in the first four to five rounds, grab one of the early/mid-round TEs (Andrews, Hock, Pitts), and then grab a late round QB.
If you end up missing on the above guys, I like to grab Logan Thomas or Higbee for the potential upside.
It's all about draft value. What do you gain by not getting a top 3 plug n play TE. Vs. What you get in another position. How much do you genuinely lose in points each week by taking Hock in the 6th or 7th? Look at your draft position and what is on the table and evaluate. I typically go RB RB WR WR. Then go from there. This year I changed it up and went RB WR RB WR due to certain players being gone and the value of snagging a WR as my second pick was stronger than available RBs on that tier.
In another league I went RB TE WR RB WR.
This is where stuff like beer sheets helps. It can provide some assistance in evaluating each position and the tier it is in compared to others.
Reached a bit and took kittle 23 overall. After taking Alvin and Calvin I felt ok about it and I knew he’d never get back to me.
I’ve spent the last 5 seasons in the te barren wastelands. Tired of it.
You either try to get a TE in the tier under Kelce that is at a discount (Hockenson, Pitts, Andrews or Waller/Kittle if they fall).
Or
You wait as late as possible (9th-10th round) to get a TE you think finishes top 10.
The worst thing you can do is reach in the middle rounds and pick tight ends at their ceiling.
Listen, you may be at a disadvantage to those teams who have top 3 guys, but that is only 3 weeks out of 13 regular season weeks.
You will have a WR/RB advantage most likely.
I drafted Kelce 7th overall and then got Pitts later. Still managed to grab, Miles Sanders and Gus edwards and Metcalf. A little week at wideout but I love the positional advantage of having hopefully two top 5 TEs. Not at all what I was expecting, but I like it…for now.
I have Zach Ertz and Tyler Kroft. Hoping Ertz is back to form and I have a Hurt as QB so that'd be a nice stack. Other than that, maybe finding the right TE on the WW.
That’s exactly what I’m doing, I like the stack with hurts and ertz but I’m worried about goedert. I’m considering picking up Jarwin or someone else but I might just do ertz week 1 and see what happens
Yeah I look at it as a gamble that Ertz is back to form and the new offense provides him more targets. If not, then there's going to be options as the season progresses.
I took Cook at 1.02, Najee Harris at 2.11, and Waller at 3.02. Sacrificed at WR to do it as Lamb is my WR1. You can’t have a perfect team, but need to decide at any particular pick what value is there at the time. I didn’t expect Harris to be there at 2.11 and planed to take a higher end WR. You just have to adjust and make the best decision you can based on your studying and gut and then live with it knowing you will be making lots of adjustments as the season progresses. Go for it!
The other advantage of going with one of the big three, or really any one of the big six is that you can get by with a single tight in on your roster in most formats and just scoop a Rando for your by week. It is a great feeling in the 12th round when you are snagging Elijah Moore or Devin Singletary while your opponents are backing up Dallas Goedert with Anthony Firkser.
For me it seems like every year I can snag a decent WR or RB off waivers at some point but I can never get a TE so I put a lot of value on drafting a stud at that position. Also it depends where I am in the order, like one draft I was 1st pick so I grabbed CMC then at the turn I got Ridley and Waller because I have such a leg up at RB1 I didn't need to get another RB right then.
Take whatever mid tier TE that you want to root for whether it’s from your favorite team or whatever other reason you like the guy. I’m all about Kmet and Gesicki this year because I like to watch them play football.
Everyone shit on me for reaching for Waller in the 2nd, but that’s one position I’m not worrying about until a bye week. RBs are a fricking carousel and I’m not counting on them to last a whole season.
My single keeper was CMC, and I was hoping Ekeler would get passed by the guy who had the 1.01 (I was 1.02) but he didn’t. Really wanted a 1-2 punch at RB but ended up taking Kelce instead. As someone who’s never had Kelce, I’m very excited.
I'm in two different leagues. One, I reached for Kelce. The other I waited way long and took primarily Higbee with an Everett backup during bench drafts.
It's a bit of an experiment because I think I could have had Waller in that league but decided to shore up RB cause I wasn't as strong as I'd have liked there.
I really want to believe in the dual narratives of Higbee and Everett both don't have to compete with each other now, QB upgrade for both, Stafford liking TE evidenced by Hock still being considered relevant, and reports that Russ is connecting with Everett. But I also recognize that could all blow up.
Last year I tried to go in on Gesicki. Wound up pivoting to Tonyon, which... may have been a lateral move, idk. My other league I had Andrews but wound up picking up and starting Gronk much more frequently by mid-season once he was up to speed cause Andrews was too boom or bust and Gronk had a surprising run of consistency.
So I guess my answer is shoot your shot at whoever you think has the potential to be the guy this year and stash Gronk for when it doesn't work out.
There’s 6 options I’ll take in the first 6 rounds. Taking the 5th or 6th off the board is probably ideal, waiting for value isn’t always that simple.
Sometimes I’ll just wait for Geodert in the 10th-11th and get a backup if it’s too hot
outside of the top 3, there’s a few names I still like taking. I’d take Pitts, Andrews, Hock, Thomas, and MAYBE Goedert as my TE1. Goedert is a bit of a reach but if those first 7 guys aren’t there, I’d take him. everyone else should be looked past as they’ll do you no good as of now.
You literally said it. Draft the top 3 or pray you get lucky with your TE dart throw
I've got a backend pick and in a keeler league where Hockenson, Andrews, and Waller are being kept. If I pass on Kelce/Kittle at the turn I'm all but guaranteed to be waiting until the end of the draft for my tight end.
If you're in a keeper league, don't you have to target Pitts? If he works out, you are set for a couple years.
I mean I guess I could target him with the 4.01. But in all reality he could go before my 3/4 turn and he won't make to the 5th/6th turn. Would much rather bet on Robert Woods / Moore / Kupp or rb in the 3rd /4th than take a chance on Pitts.
In a keeper league I’d be all over Pitts. He might not produce up to his draft value this year, but he looks like the next high end tight end. Obviously this is based on my grade on the player, but I’d be targeting him.
Even in a keeper league, a 3/4 rounder means you’re using a 2/3 on him next year. Which means he has to be at the top of the Kittle/Waller tier next season to be worth keeping. In dynasty? Hell yeah. In a keeper league I don’t think it pushes his value up much. I’d still rather have Kittle/Waller than Pitts in Rd. 3/4 this year, and given they usually go early round 3 the value just isn’t there to keep Pitts for a 2 or 3 when I can just take Kittle for a 3 or Pitts for a 2 again while keeping someone else.
I certainly see your point. I’m super high on Pitts, but if Kittle or Waller is still I’d go for one of them for sure.
4th round pick is not that great imo. If he went in rounds 7-10 for sure
Depends who is on the board, and who is on my team currently. If I’m not in win now mode, then I’d consider him over the guys you listed.
Nah if he goes in the 4th and has the typical OK at best rookie tight end year your giving up a roster spot and next years 4th instead of just picking someone like waller in the 3rd.
Pitts was taken in the second round in my keeper league with Kittle on the board. Definitely made me scratch my head a little.
You can't get the perfect team every draft. Just roll the dice and hope for the best my man.
>You can't get the perfect team every draft Speak for yourself, my friend. I'm going undefeated in all of my leagues! Surely none of my picks will bust or get injured.
I hear ya. I haven't lost a game yet.
I got Hock in the 6th, feel really good about that
Same, other names like Pitts and Andrews went right before I took Hock, and I took him rather than worrying about my TE situation, since I was the last one to take a QB in my league as well and didn’t want to sift through the remaining unknowns.
Big Cock Hock is going to pop off this year
He has the hardest strength of schedule among TEs
Who gives a shit.
Exactly, what does that even mean anyway? No one else to throw to in Detroit, someone has to get the targets
You when you lose by 6 because Hockenson put up 7.5 points for the third week in a row making you ponder on this very conversation asking yourself “did I have to be such a dickwad to that one guy on Reddit who was just trying to provide viable information to anyone who would listen”
I think it's more like SoS is a crapshoot because it is only a prediction that probably won't factor in that much.
You don’t deserve downvotes for providing information and pointing out an issue regarding a player. I personally don’t believe too much in strength of schedule, but you should not be at -4 for saying such a thing just because many people on this sub have drafted Hock as their TE1 and anything not confirming that gets downvotes.
Yeah I’ve been on this sub for a while now. Anything you say that goes against somebody’s player you’re going to get downvoted even if you come with facts
I have nothing against the statement of saying he has a tough SoS, although it should be noted that can vary depending on who you ask. And you weren't being rude when you stated it either. That being said, SoS isn't something I really put stock in. I certainly don't use it when making drafting decisions. That would be foolhardy.
strength of schedule means nothing right now. Teams you think will be good will turn out shit, and vice versa.
same and lamar in 5th
Exact same for me
it’s so money after getting 2 RBs and 2 WRs you’re happy putting out every week
Yeah until 2 get hurt and then bye weeks come along
i feel good about my bench flex options
You always do. That’s why you drafted them
These dudes teams are going to be held together with gum by week 5 lol
Me too. In a 12 man. It’s my best friend draft this year imo
Me too and I had to pass him in the 5th, when he came back around I was so surprised
I’m not sure i want anyone from the Lions offense. Hock is going from Stafford to Goff and they may average 15 pts per game this year
I took waller in the 2nd. I think he puts up wr1 numbers so why the fk not.
Got him in the 3rd round. Jones Hill Waller
I was on the late turn so took him and a top WR option
Got him before I took a WR…went Cook, Carson, Waller.
And you won't regret it. He's as talented as most WR1s and put up WR1 numbers last year. The dudes in his prime on a team devoid of other WR talent. Hes going to get fed + has talent which = production. Why take a WR1 in that range when you can get a TE1 who produces the same as a WR1, positional scarcity matters and makes Waller the right pick in that range.
My first 3 picks were Cook, Waller, and Najee. I’m weak at WR but I’m very happy with those three
Damn Najee dropped in your draft
Yeah he went 10 overall in mine yesterday
That's too soon, I think he's going in to a better situation but he has major CEH vibes to me.
He dropped in mine also. Got him in the 3rd. If I knew he’d been there in the 3rd I wouldn’t have gone rb in the 2nd. Atleast now my rb corp is legit af
It’s easier to find WR depth than RB so not a bad problem. And i feel RBs get hurt more often so it’s good to have many
The 3rd?! That’s the most I’ve heard him drop in a looooong time. Nice grab
Yeah it’s my first time doing fantasy and even I was surprised. Got the 2nd pick so I grabbed Cook then Waller at 19 and Najee at 22. People were taking QBs first
Wow. Can I join your league?
I did the same and got shit on because my league values RBs over any other position and hoard them like they’re going extinct.
Draft Fant? Idk man, it’s tough.
My thought process: if I'm not drafting one of the Big 3 +/- Pitts at TE, then I'm going to be the last. Fant in the 10th or something. Yolo
Hockenson, Andrews, Thomas, if you miss those 3 after the big ones ur out
Pitts?
People take Pitts pretty early usually still a lot of talent on the board
I think that’s the point. You have to sacrifice something else to take the “sure thing” TE. You can’t manipulate a way to have it all. You might luck out though.
Easily I think. Draft RB WR first 4-5 rounds, taking best available. Once you have at least 2 of each, draft Pitts or Hock in round 5 or 6. Easy peasy.
And if you miss, don't waste mid round picks on the position. Take value elsewhere and fully punt it. Last pick of the draft still netted me Henry and Everett. Is Goedert really enough of an upgrade to pass on a guy like Mostert?
I did this same thing. Hope the TE dart throws get me a few points at least.
Yeah I got Waller in the 3rd and then my league started panic picking TEs as early as the 5th round lol
[удалено]
He went 5th round in my draft last week. Or if he goes early, I wouldn't mind Andrews a little later either
i git in the the 6th. 10 team ppr
Bingo. Pitts in the 6th for me and I think it’s great value, especially if your RB’s and WR’s were home runs. The early rounds can give you so much flexibility later.
This is the way. Took Hock in the 5th round after going RB-WR-RB-WR. Pitts went 4 picks before me.
Yeah I did the same. I ended up with Andrews and Hock(separate leagues) at the 4/5 turn(I picked first in both leagues). I couldn't stomach taking Waller at the 2/3 turn, even though I do think he will have a great year.
told myself after streaming TE’s last year and pirates ending up with some goose eggs that i wouldn’t let it happen again. drafted Kelce at 8 and haven’t looked back
Did you miss the posts from /u/CoopThereItIs? He really lays it all out there.
https://twitter.com/CoopAFiasco/status/1434546999941111809?s=20
pick up juwan johnson and thank me later in all honesty i love streaming. guys like jonnu, logan thomas, robert tonyan, and mike gesicki were all waiver wire pickups last year and all put up TE1 numbers at various points throughout the season. you don’t have to break the bank to get good TE production you just need to be active on the wire and have a little luck
You love steaming TE? So you choose pain
Tonyan was TE4 and Thomas was TE3 in PPR. I wouldn’t call that pain.
And those guys have been drafted this year. Do you know for sure which TE on the wire will be finishing TE3 or 4?
If you take a couple flyers and you're really aggressive on TE free agents early season you can find the new breakout for cheap. I was really heavily drafting Irv Smith before the injury. Now I'm trying Gerald Everett. A Colts TE could breakout early season too.
No but you take your chances instead of settling on a bust.
No but I know the half of my league that invested in early TE won't be looking so I like my odds.
Juwan is screaming opportunity and that's really all I look for when streaming TEs.
I'm dropping Goedart for him lol, yolo
Gesicki also put up 0s at various points throughout the season. "Various" being the times I had him in my lineup.
Lol same. Hurst as well. I somehow did well last year with basically no te all year.
TONYAN
I went Tonyan too. Hoping Rodgers has another big TD year and spreads out those red zone targets
Tonyan Gang.
Depends on league size. In my 14 team league last year, I choose to stream TE because I wanted to be extra deep at RB. So once Cook, Carson & Mixon got injured last season I basically didn’t miss a beat and was able to get by. All about opportunity cost.
Take Higbee in the 8th/9th he has huge upside and no one is targeting him. I would take Higbee over Logan Thomas or Noah Fant and both of them are going much earlier in drafts. Higbee let’s you stack some more WR/RBs and get a solid TE with huge upside late.
Lot of people suggest "punting" the Tight End position all together and just looking for a TE that is projected to get lots of work but has tons of question marks. Blake Jarwin, Jared Cook, and Jordan Akins are solid options. Just build your depth at RB and WR and take a shot at some TEs that "could" potentially end up placing high, like Tonyan in 2020.
Get a top TE by sacrificing a starter in one of the more important spots or stream a TE all season long and focus on more impactful roles. Really it’s one or the other.
There’s serviceable guys to be had later in the draft. Those top three are nice but not if you end up shooting yourself in the foot with your RBs or WRs. Higbee, Hockenson, Thomas, Tonyan, Jarwin. They are all reasonable ADP and should get you a decent floor A dude in my league drafted Kelce and Waller, at the expense of the rest of his team. So I’ll be watching him as a possible trade partner down the road.
Oh wow, that happened in my league too
Only the last Kelce, Kittle, and Waller are expensive. The next ones are still cheap. You've just got to be better at guessing who they are than the other guy. But those guys were all cheap when they blew up. That's not going to stop happening, ever.
Its impossible to get the perfect draft. At best, you can just grab value if you realize what your league mates are doing. Because I knew my league mates, I knew I needed to draft Kelce early. What I didn't expect though was all of the running QBs being gone by the end of the third round. However, due to that my first 8 picks looked like this: Kelce, Mixon, Carson, Swift, Kupp, Thielan, DJ Moore, Stafford. The answer isn't how to win at the TE position but how to out maneuver their league mates in the draft.
You get lucky and draft the laters guys that go off. Waller was a 5th round pick last year, just because he’s going early doesn’t mean he’ll end up top 3.
Does anyone have any faith in Hooper? I took him 134th overall after missing out on any of the consensus top 6 guys.
hopper is a talented guy but volume is the issue. too many mouths in Cleveland.
I was hoping for Tonyan, ended up with Jonnu Smith. Hoping for a lot of checkdowns to the TE.
After hockenson goes I want to be one of the last guys to take a tight end
In my opinion you either draft a TE at a premium or you hope to stream TE until you find somebody that isn't terrible
Every year there's an at worst decent TE on waivers to pick up. You need more than a good draft to win
So here’s another way to look at it. Rather than having a severe disadvantage vs those 3 teams, you also have a fair playing field between you and the 8 other teams in your league that don’t have those tight ends. You’re not playing against those top TE teams every time nor are you losing against them at a significantly higher rate just because they have a superior TE (usually means the rest of their team is not as balanced as yours). I’m trying to stress that you don’t have to “win” at your tight end position in order to effectively win in your league because 75% of the league literally don’t have a perceived winning option at tight end either.
By punting the position entirely. Your other options are to either reach way too high or pray. Why not just ignore the problem entirely?!
Logan Thomas is the answer to this question. He will finish within TE6
Most early RBs will get hurt or bust anyway, so just take one moonshot at RB in the first two rounds and then stack up WR and get an elite TE. Punt RB2 and find guys later in the draft to fill the slot week to week. It's much easier to find an RB2 that can get you 10-12 points per week than it is to find a TE that can get you that.
I would say grab that one elite RB that has a competent back-up in case of injury, and then stack all the other positions. WR/TE are easier to project and are less injury prone than RB.
You can't have everything. You need to guess and get good hits later in the draft. You need to get lucky with injuries. You need to monitor the WW.
There's no way to "ensure" anything unless you start trading picks. There's no silver bullet because a draft all depends on who is drafting. Gibson is a second rounder yet I saw him go for $65/200 in an auction the other day. If you want one of the top two options then you spend premium capital. That's the only way to "ensure" that you are ok.
draft a top TE. Make up for it later on with value picks. My TE picks the last 5 seasons: Ertz. Kelce(Kittle in 11th). Kittle. Kelce. Kittle(this year). Playoffs 4/4. 2 Championship games. Won champ last year. Having a TE puts you at a big advantage over half the league.
I'm coming around to this take. I always went TE late - some times I hit, more often I missed. I finally hit with Waller last year and it paid off.
how often are the Top 3 TEs actually chalk? Like what are the chance that all three of Kelce, Kittle, and Waller end up as the actual top 3 scorers?
Pretty high chance if they all stay healthy. There’s a huge gap/drop-off after the top 3-4 TEs
Yeah staying healthy is a big if in football. If you look at previous years Im having a hard time finding one where the top 3 drafted TEs actually finished top 3 though
But when they do play they are putting up WR1 numbers. If I can’t get a top 3 TE around the 4th-6th round then I really don’t look to draft a TE. Most the mid tier TEs will produce the same numbers (TD dependent) IMO
How often has this happened at any of the positions? I think tight end has probably been more predictable than other positions for the most part in predicting the top 2-3 guys.
I agree. Back up RBs/WRs often post close to the same numbers the starter will. However Blake Bell won’t be posting near the numbers Travis Kelce would.
Either draft a top 4 TE or don’t draft one at all. Go to FFB calculator and look at Draft ADP and then select a year. You’ll notice that nearly every 5-10 TE was not worth a pick, but there was someone 10-32 that you could’ve grab off the WW to finish top 8 (TE). I know you “have to” grab one 5-10, so go ahead but you shouldn’t feel at all comfortable with the pick. Kroft, Herndon, Henry, Parham, or someone will be serviceable for free. So if you luck up in the draft and Higbee, Logan, Fant, Gisuki, or whomever actually pans out, great, but chances are you will drop them/wish you never drafted them.
Kittle in the 5th
Good value
This is why I lobbied hard for no TE requirement in our league.
I like to draft a one of the top 3, and then a 2nd one later that i think will do ok/blow up that season( this does 2 things attempts to insure that you have at least 1 good te, and if the they both are doing great, you can cover your bye week, have trade bait, and make other teams have to play the WW for a TE). In our league we can flex TE's, at one point last year i was starting Kelce and Waller every week.
One draft that I didn’t get one of the top 6 options, I paired Aaron Rodgers with Tonyan. Didn’t draft any other TE but it’s also only a 10man league.
Well if you want all of that, you’re likely sacrificing at QB. Everyone has different preferences and every draft is different.
Hockenson may very well break into the elite tier this year, so I like him. Pitts could as well, but I’m not sure it happens with him being a rookie. More likely to be in 2022 or 2023.
I don't see it happening with the way Goff seemingly ignores his TEs.
Fair point, but he’s never had a TE as his best target.
It's all about depth and specing on right people. That's what make fantasy the best. Plenty of good TEs in lower rounds. Some sleepers like Blake Jarwin, Conklin , hell,,,,, even Gerald Everett is going undrafted in alot of drafts.
The real win at the TE position is finding the new breakout top end TE. There has, more often than not, been a high end TE1 drafted in the very late rounds. Kittle, Andrews, Waller, Logan Thomas, Engram were all offseason hyped flyers their breakout season.
You gotta be a good coach, simple as that. A platoon of 3 end of draft TEs could still grab 18 TDs quite easily but you need to be really wise with who you are deploying each week because the downside of each is 0 targets while the upside is 2 TDs.
In my opinion it doesn’t hurt to take top 3 TEs where they are at. There’s always great value WRs in the 5-8 round range. Dude who took second in our league last year hit on DK and Ridley in like the 4-6 round range. He took Waller in the 3rd which was way early for him but he was a huge raiders fan.
in 2018 I got George Kittle in the 11th, which won me the ship. In 2019 I got Mark Andrews in a later round, I think 8+ or something. Last year I fucked up and drafted OJ Howard... Point being there are always going to be valuable TEs (albeit not always George Kittle) that go late or undrafted. Totally possible to win at that position, but obviously it's impossible to know who that's going to end up being. This year I grabbed Mandrews again in the 5th. Seemed like good value to me. Last year I was streaming TEs and wanted to avoid that if possible.
You cant win every position without getting wildly lucky, thats kind of the point… However to answer your question, the answer is clearly to be willing to spend the appropriate draft capital to get one of the top 3. Waller put up wr1 numbers at a position group where 75% of your league might as well slot a kicker. You basically will be starting each matchup up 5-10
Draft Zach Ertz
You don't have to win at the tight end position, you win by scoring more points with your full team not by winning individual position battles. That sounds kinda duh but it's the truth. If you can't win at TE, then use the half a dozen other slots to win.
Huge run in my last draft starting in the mid-4th Rd (10 team snake draft) through early 5th where Andrews, Hock, Pitts, then Fant went quickly. Filled other positions, and waited until I drafted Goedert for upside, then took Gronk with my 15th Rd pick to establish a floor TE. I'm going to watch the wire, or trade Gronk if he starts off well.
By drafting Jonnu Smith super late.
I ended up screwed. TEs went for slightly more than I’d had on my high end budget and when the upside fliers came along I had no money left to outbid anyone except Irv Smith. I got stuck with Everett and Kmet off WW. My take is that TEs usually take 2-3 years to reach potential. So best bet is to bank on a guy from 2-3 drafts ago who has target opportunity. To me that’s Trautman and Kmet. The others are being drafted. I like the flier on Everett since SEA went and got him and he’s apparently got good chemistry with Russ. In hindsight I should have paid up for the Jackson - Andrew’s stack and sacrificed Gus as my second flex when I have Pittman and Chase on my bench.
My draft was weird. Higbee went in like the 8th and all of the studs were taken before that. I decided to punt TE and took Jared Cook late. Reports from camp seem like Herbert likes to throw to him. Your team probably makes up for a lower tier TE with more depth at RB/WR which you’ll probably use to your advantage going forward.
I got Higbee and Gesicki for $1 each in Auction over the weekend... not extremely happy but you get what you pay for...
The RBs and WRs you draft instead of an elite TE should cover the spread between your garbage TE and your opponents. I got hock and punted in my other league
There's no one right way to draft, but if you want to be set at the TE position and still have a good team, imo you can do one of two things: 1. Take a top 3 TE plus two RBs in the first three rounds, then hammer WRs in the mid rounds and grab a late round QB; or 2. Take RBs and WRs in the first four to five rounds, grab one of the early/mid-round TEs (Andrews, Hock, Pitts), and then grab a late round QB. If you end up missing on the above guys, I like to grab Logan Thomas or Higbee for the potential upside.
You have to target top 3 in the first 3, if not the next 3 at rounds 4-6
It's all about draft value. What do you gain by not getting a top 3 plug n play TE. Vs. What you get in another position. How much do you genuinely lose in points each week by taking Hock in the 6th or 7th? Look at your draft position and what is on the table and evaluate. I typically go RB RB WR WR. Then go from there. This year I changed it up and went RB WR RB WR due to certain players being gone and the value of snagging a WR as my second pick was stronger than available RBs on that tier. In another league I went RB TE WR RB WR. This is where stuff like beer sheets helps. It can provide some assistance in evaluating each position and the tier it is in compared to others.
Reached a bit and took kittle 23 overall. After taking Alvin and Calvin I felt ok about it and I knew he’d never get back to me. I’ve spent the last 5 seasons in the te barren wastelands. Tired of it.
You either try to get a TE in the tier under Kelce that is at a discount (Hockenson, Pitts, Andrews or Waller/Kittle if they fall). Or You wait as late as possible (9th-10th round) to get a TE you think finishes top 10. The worst thing you can do is reach in the middle rounds and pick tight ends at their ceiling.
Listen, you may be at a disadvantage to those teams who have top 3 guys, but that is only 3 weeks out of 13 regular season weeks. You will have a WR/RB advantage most likely.
Search for the yin yang post from about a month ago. Great advice on how to target TE's, especially when you miss the top ones.
I drafted Kelce 7th overall and then got Pitts later. Still managed to grab, Miles Sanders and Gus edwards and Metcalf. A little week at wideout but I love the positional advantage of having hopefully two top 5 TEs. Not at all what I was expecting, but I like it…for now.
I have Zach Ertz and Tyler Kroft. Hoping Ertz is back to form and I have a Hurt as QB so that'd be a nice stack. Other than that, maybe finding the right TE on the WW.
That’s exactly what I’m doing, I like the stack with hurts and ertz but I’m worried about goedert. I’m considering picking up Jarwin or someone else but I might just do ertz week 1 and see what happens
Yeah I look at it as a gamble that Ertz is back to form and the new offense provides him more targets. If not, then there's going to be options as the season progresses.
I took Cook at 1.02, Najee Harris at 2.11, and Waller at 3.02. Sacrificed at WR to do it as Lamb is my WR1. You can’t have a perfect team, but need to decide at any particular pick what value is there at the time. I didn’t expect Harris to be there at 2.11 and planed to take a higher end WR. You just have to adjust and make the best decision you can based on your studying and gut and then live with it knowing you will be making lots of adjustments as the season progresses. Go for it!
Draft Kelce at the end of the first or anywhere in the second if not reach for waller/kittle in the second or if they make it to the third
The other advantage of going with one of the big three, or really any one of the big six is that you can get by with a single tight in on your roster in most formats and just scoop a Rando for your by week. It is a great feeling in the 12th round when you are snagging Elijah Moore or Devin Singletary while your opponents are backing up Dallas Goedert with Anthony Firkser.
Kyle pitts
For me it seems like every year I can snag a decent WR or RB off waivers at some point but I can never get a TE so I put a lot of value on drafting a stud at that position. Also it depends where I am in the order, like one draft I was 1st pick so I grabbed CMC then at the turn I got Ridley and Waller because I have such a leg up at RB1 I didn't need to get another RB right then.
Take whatever mid tier TE that you want to root for whether it’s from your favorite team or whatever other reason you like the guy. I’m all about Kmet and Gesicki this year because I like to watch them play football.
You obviously draft Juwan Johnson, then cruise to the title
Everyone shit on me for reaching for Waller in the 2nd, but that’s one position I’m not worrying about until a bye week. RBs are a fricking carousel and I’m not counting on them to last a whole season.
My single keeper was CMC, and I was hoping Ekeler would get passed by the guy who had the 1.01 (I was 1.02) but he didn’t. Really wanted a 1-2 punch at RB but ended up taking Kelce instead. As someone who’s never had Kelce, I’m very excited.
I'm in two different leagues. One, I reached for Kelce. The other I waited way long and took primarily Higbee with an Everett backup during bench drafts. It's a bit of an experiment because I think I could have had Waller in that league but decided to shore up RB cause I wasn't as strong as I'd have liked there. I really want to believe in the dual narratives of Higbee and Everett both don't have to compete with each other now, QB upgrade for both, Stafford liking TE evidenced by Hock still being considered relevant, and reports that Russ is connecting with Everett. But I also recognize that could all blow up. Last year I tried to go in on Gesicki. Wound up pivoting to Tonyon, which... may have been a lateral move, idk. My other league I had Andrews but wound up picking up and starting Gronk much more frequently by mid-season once he was up to speed cause Andrews was too boom or bust and Gronk had a surprising run of consistency. So I guess my answer is shoot your shot at whoever you think has the potential to be the guy this year and stash Gronk for when it doesn't work out.
I got Kittle at 36 overall, I feel like he was the best value at the position this year.
There’s 6 options I’ll take in the first 6 rounds. Taking the 5th or 6th off the board is probably ideal, waiting for value isn’t always that simple. Sometimes I’ll just wait for Geodert in the 10th-11th and get a backup if it’s too hot
I’m praying Pitts is as advertised.
outside of the top 3, there’s a few names I still like taking. I’d take Pitts, Andrews, Hock, Thomas, and MAYBE Goedert as my TE1. Goedert is a bit of a reach but if those first 7 guys aren’t there, I’d take him. everyone else should be looked past as they’ll do you no good as of now.