Breakdown Of Tight Ends

[ZIBBY28]

heres my personal rankings for TE's this year for FF and reasons why

Tier 1
1. Jason Witten, TE Dallas - No TO, should get tons of looks and cant deny talent
2. Antonio Gates, TE San Diego - Always a redzone threat, Rivers relies heavily on Gates
3. Dallas Clark, TE Indianapolis - No Marvin Harrison, actually more of a WR in Indi's offense.. keep in mind who his QB is
4. Tony Gonzalez, TE Atlanta - New QB, new system, getting older.. i dont care.. i will gladly take him

----------------------------

Tier 2
5. Chris Cooley, TE Washington - Jason C. has something to prove, Cooley will help him do so in a west coast offense
6. Owen Daniels, TE Houston - Has the weapons around him to somehow find himself wide open time and time again
7. Greg Olsen, TE Chicago - I expect Cutler to rely on one of his best weapons on offense, even if he is a TE

----------------------------

Tier 3
8. John Carlson, TE Seattle - Great rookie year, heathly Hasselback, could be a great sleeper
9. Kellen Winslow, TE Tampa Bay - The "soldier" finally gets out of playing the steelers and ravens twice a year
10. Jeremy Shockey, TE New Orleans - Brees will find whoever is open, its all a matter of whether or not he can stay on the field

----------------------------

Tier 4
11. Heath Miller, TE Pittsburgh - Ben finds ways to extend plays and Miller benefits greatly from it
12. Tony Sheffler, TE Denver - Kyle Orton is no Jay Cutler, look for decent numbers from his check-down receivers like Shef
13. Kevin Boss, TE NY Giants - No Plax, could be a threat in the red zone when teams load the box to stop Jacobs
14. Dustin Keller, TE NY Jets - Played well last year, first year QBs tend not to take chances and hit receivers on short/intermediate routes
15. Visanthe Shiancoe, TE Minnesota - Brett Favre???

----------------------------

Tier 5
16. Ben Watson, TE Patriots - Tom Brady... enough said.
17. Todd Heap, TE Baltimore - We all can hope and pray he's healthy, but I'm not going to take a chance on him early
18. Anthony Fasano, TE Miami - Pennington has everything but a cannon, fasano could find pay dirt more often this year
19. Zach Miller, TE Oakland - got the talent, idk if Russell will find him very often though
20. Brent Celek, TE Philadelphia - Philly's pass happy offense has to throw to someone

some other TEs worth noting: Vernon Davis - SF, Ben Utech/Chase Coffman - CIN, Brandon Pettigrew - DET
comments??

[SuperBowlBound]

Hey Bud,
I just have a few thoughhts here:

- I think you have cooley ranked way to high - he's more like 8-10.
- sheffler needs to get moved into the top 10. he is unreal, and last year he spent most of the year semi-injured (missed 4-6 games)
- if you look at last years stats Zach Miller was almost for sure in the top 12-15 tight ends... he won't have a lot of touchdowns but he'll pump out 50-80 every game (which for a tier 4 tight end is all you can expect). he is talented.
- I also like dallas clarke a lot this year, I think shockey is probably worse than 10th (maybe 12-14), and gonzo is a huge risk/reward guy as he is an unknown in the offense for now.

otherwise I like your picks a lot here

[ZIBBY28]

[quote name='SuperBowlBound' date='07 July 2009 - 04:59 PM' timestamp='1247000355' post='205477']
Hey Bud,
I just have a few thoughhts here:

- I think you have cooley ranked way to high - he's more like 8-10.
- sheffler needs to get moved into the top 10. he is unreal, and last year he spent most of the year semi-injured (missed 4-6 games)
- if you look at last years stats Zach Miller was almost for sure in the top 12-15 tight ends... he won't have a lot of touchdowns but he'll pump out 50-80 every game (which for a tier 4 tight end is all you can expect). he is talented.
- I also like dallas clarke a lot this year, I think shockey is probably worse than 10th (maybe 12-14), and gonzo is a huge risk/reward guy as he is an unknown in the offense for now.

otherwise I like your picks a lot here
[/quote]
thanks for the input, but im going to stick to my guns for the most part.. i think cooley will get plenty of looks this year, dont know how often the new sheriff in town will use Sheff in that offense, agree somewhat with shockey but could be a steal if he can stay healthy w/ brees, and agree again w/ gonzo, but still think his numbers will be strong enough, either way, to warrant him in all fantasy leagues

[Alexir]

Cooley and Shockey are too far up. Cooley will get his looks just like any other TE but I wouldnt put them that high.

[ZIBBY28]

[quote name='Alexir' date='08 July 2009 - 09:18 PM' timestamp='1247102305' post='205655']
Cooley and Shockey are too far up. Cooley will get his looks just like any other TE but I wouldnt put them that high.
[/quote]
i dont understand why everyone is so down on cooley from a fantasy standpoint.. last year he was targeted the 3rd most of any TE (behind witten and gonzo), had the 2nd most receptions (behind gonzo) and the 4th most yards (behind gonzo, witten, and daniels)

[McBurks]

[quote name='ZIBBY28' date='09 July 2009 - 11:21 AM' timestamp='1247152898' post='205713']
i dont understand why everyone is so down on cooley from a fantasy standpoint.. last year he was targeted the 3rd most of any TE (behind witten and gonzo), had the 2nd most receptions (behind gonzo) and the 4th most yards (behind gonzo, witten, and daniels)
[/quote]

Everyone was disappointed because he was projected as a top 5 TE last year and didn't produce.

He had 83 catches for 849 yards,[b]but only had 1 TD[/b].I blame part of the reason on the collapse of the Redskins in the second half of the season and part on Cooley and Campbell.He also fumbled 3 times and lost 2 of them.

[WinnipegRaven]

I think Kellen Winslow should be a tier 2, possibly even a tier 1 given the fact that Tampa has said they are going to be using him extensively as an offensive weapon. Tony should be bumped down to tier 2 since Atlanta has already said they are going to be using him more as a blocker than a receiver.

Bucs OC Jeff Jagodzinski expects to use Kellen Winslow "extensively" in his offense.
"I've been very, very fortunate with the guys that I've had," Jagodzinski said. "I had Bubba Franks as a rookie (in Green Bay). I had Alge Crumpler (in Atlanta), who was as good a tight end as I've been around ... I use those guys a lot. Quite a bit." The Bucs don't have a deep receiving corps, so Winslow will be featured heavily in the passing game.

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?id=2772&sport=NFL

[lowrider]

Gates is still going to be hurt when training camp rolls around and I think he is going to be good this year. Bo scaife, even though he isn't number one on the depth chart for the titans; he was really good last year for me. And since the titans didn't have many solid receivers they just threw it to the tight end.

[Corvus]

I agree with most of your rankings Zibby, but here is how I would rank them with details on the ones I shuffled around:

Tier 1
1. Jason Witten, TE Dallas
2. Antonio Gates, TE San Diego
3. Dallas Clark, TE Indianapolis
4. Tony Gonzalez, TE Atlanta
----------------------------

Tier 2
5. Chris Cooley, TE Washington
6. Owen Daniels, TE Houston
7. Greg Olsen, TE Chicago
8. Visanthe Shiancoe, TE Minnesota - A lot of people don't realize he was a top 5 TE last year, if Favre is a Vike, he will definitely put up some good numbers again
----------------------------

Tier 3
9. John Carlson, TE Seattle
10. Kellen Winslow, TE Tampa Bay
11. Dustin Keller, TE NJ Jets - with Lavernaeus Coles gone, the only established receiver is Cotchery with no one else really proven behind him. Keller lost all of his competition in Chris Baker, and Bubba Franks played all 16 games last year and caught a big 10 passes or something like that. The Tight End is always a QB's best friend, regardless of if they are a first year QB or not.
12. Zach Miller, TE Oakland - Along with Keller and Carlson, he is my third TE sleeper this year. Has caught 100+ passes in his first two years, no reason to think he won't have 50+ catches and 5+ TDs again this year, besides who else is Oakland really gonna throw the ball to? Heyward-Bey? Haha...
----------------------------

Tier 4
13. Heath Miller, TE Pittsburgh
14. Tony Sheffler, TE Denver
15. Kevin Boss, TE NY Giants
16. Anthony Fasano, TE Miami - was better than most though last year, if it weren't for David Martin splitting work with him, he would be a tier 3 easy.
17. Brent Celek, TE Philadelphia - Took the starting job from LJ late in the season and was a great asset for them in the post season. Could be a good sleeper here.

----------------------------

The rest
Ben Watson, TE Patriots
Chris Baker, TE Patriots
Todd Heap, TE Baltimore
LJ Smith, TE Baltimore
Brandon Pettigrew, TE Detriot
Jeremy Shockey, TE New Orleans - I don't trust him one bit, I think Pierre Thomas actually caught more balls than he did last year. He hasn't been a key to their OTAs this year either.

[Ed_Reed20]

Obviously you have to rank TEs in a logical way but I really the TE position is a crapshoot after Witten, Gates, Gonzalez and Clark. Cooley could make a push to be in the conversation but I see players like Boss, Fasano, Carlson, Daniels, Olsen and Winslow all putting up similar stats.

[Guest jasonIPS2]

I think you have Miller, Sheffler, and Boss a little low. I also think Winslow might turn things around this year. The Browns were just a terrible team last year.

[Purple Pain]

I like Owen Daniels over almost any TE in the NFL, dude doesn't get the respect he deserves.

[PuRock]

[quote name='Purple Pain' date='24 August 2009 - 11:42 AM' timestamp='1251128526' post='223016']
I like Owen Daniels over almost any TE in the NFL, dude doesn't get the respect he deserves.
[/quote]

Owen's is a great TE , not elite because he doesn't get the TDs. And he is rarely targeted in the Red Zone, mostly because Andre Johnson is a RedZone Td Target Beast. I think he might have ranked tops in this category.

But if you are one of those people who miss the flurry of TEs (When one goes, they all go) then Owen Daniels is definitely a steal.

Witten should be the #1 TE off boards this year. Gates #2 since he's been battling injuries (But he is a Redzone beast as well).