Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Top 10 TE + Sleepers, Fantasy Game, News

I thought I said it in the defense of Zach Kurtz. Hmm, those are, we'll have to go back and check the tape. Okay. My brain definitely said that. Maybe my mouth did not. One of us, uh, or maybe two of us. Hey, guys, you know who's not going to be in Tennessee? My, uh, Marky, Marky, Mark and George Clooney. Um, my favorite value pick, my favorite tight end, my favorite of all of, of maybe the whole draft right now.

is Antonio Gates. Antonio Gates, the forgotten man for some reason, except for the fact that if you look back over the last 27 games played, he has 17 touchdowns and Gruncowski has 21. That's not very far behind. But you can get Antonio Gates very late. Yeah. Very late. Last year, in only 11 games, 84 targets. He finished the year with 56 receptions over 600 yards and five touchdowns. Five touchdowns.

in 11 games, and you look back at the two years ago, the monster touchdown performance. Antonio Gates is always a top two target for San Diego. San Diego is going to have to throw the ball over 550 times. Their offense is going to move. I think their defense continues to struggle. Someone has to score for the San Diego Chargers. Antonio Gates and the double digits is one of my top, top targets if...

if a guy like Reed doesn't fall to me. Yeah, and, you know, sometimes narratives and things like that that you hear behind the scenes, they actually do matter. I mean, these are human beings, and it does matter. You know, Steve Smith's coming back to grab his, to get to the threshold he wants to get to in receptions. I think he's like 34 away. Gates...

and Philip Rivers have both said they want to get him to that touchdown record that he's nearer to getting. I forget exactly what that is, but that means in the red zone, there's a, there's a, Gonzalez has the record, right?

You're talking about the tight end receiving or touchdown record? Yeah, I believe so. But they've come out and said that that is important to them this season. You get down in the red zone and that matters to you. That's just maybe one or two extra looks this season where he's going to force the ball. Maybe when he shouldn't. Maybe he throws a pick and does some bad things. Or maybe you end up with a couple extra touchdowns because they're trying to force the issue. I love that. I love those. Look, if I can get him in the 10th round, I'm not going to push him up to the, oh, he's going to be so great. I'm going to take him in the fifth round.

but it's a guy going in double-digit rounds who has been a fantasy superstar who did it last year. Ladarius Green is gone and they want to get him a touchdown record. That's a, that's a Marky Mark and George Clooney are going to be there. They just went to San Diego. He has 104 touchdowns right now. The record's 111. They're not in Tennessee. They're in San Diego. Yeah. So.

They have to travel around. He needs seven to get there. He needs seven touchdowns. He's a lock for seven touchdowns to me. You lost Stevie Johnson. When Philip Rivers wakes up in the morning, he throws two or three passes to Antonio Gates. That's the first thing he does when he wakes up. Number 10, I'm going to call it a tie.

Between Eric Ebron and Tyler Eifford, those are the two guys at 10-11 for us. I guess they just swapped on our rankings right before the show. Is that what took place? No, actually, before the show, Tyler Eifert went down to number 12. He is behind Dwayne Allen. So let me ask you this. If you were starting mid-season. Ooh, Tyler Eifert would be higher. Much higher. Okay. Then this. So let's just talk about Ebrin then. Abron's going to play in week one. We like him at the number 10 position, though. That's very, very high praise.

For an unproven tied end. For an unproven tight end. Especially when the guy behind him has had 13 touchdowns last year. I mean, right now, Eric Ebron is being drafted in average drafts behind Jason Witten. Okay. Behind Lederius Green still, which I don't know if that's accurate in the last few weeks. But the point is we are projecting a jump forward for him that he hasn't done yet. And you can question that. It's a little scary, especially with the current ankle injury. First round tied in.

But he was a top 10 selection in the NFL because he is very talented. Calvin Johnson leaves. The offense is looking like they are going to have more attempts per game because they're running no huddle. And you have to remember with tight ends, it takes a couple of years for them to get involved. Take a look at Greg Olson. Greg Olson has been as tried and true a consistent fantasy.

tight-in for the last, you know, eight, nine years, maybe not the top three, but, you know, a top five or six, always in that range. His second season in the league, which was, he was very involved, pretty much like Ebron was last year. He had 54 receptions for 574 yards and five touchdowns. Eric Ebron was 47 for 537 and 5. Very, very, very similar. The third year, or going into Greg Olson, then the following year,

He went up to over 100 receptions and had his career high in touchdowns. That's about when tight ends can take a jump. There's reason to believe with the team around him, and he's got the talent. I know he's had drops that have been. And it costs you nothing. So if you're wrong, just go sign another guy. Exactly. That's what makes Eric Abrams so great. We can project him at 10. You can draft him for free. And if he works out, you're a genius. And if he doesn't work out, you can kick him to the curb with little cost. Yep. So.

All right, we're going to talk some sleeper tight ends. You talking to me? The fantasy footballers are now pleased to bring back. Good friend of the show, John Paulson, from 444444. You can find him on Twitter at 4444 underscore John. There's a configuration of numbers in the word for in there, but we'll get to that. They can find him. We'll figure it out. You probably already know who John is. But how are you doing today, John? I'm doing great, guys. How are you doing?

We're doing fantastic. We are going through some tight ends. And on the show, we kind of been focused on the 1 through 10 and breaking those down. But we want to talk to you about some of those guys who are going later that can possibly make the jump. We see it happen frequently. We had Gary Barnage last year. And you came on our MVP show, and you talked up your love for Dwayne Allen. So for those, in case somebody missed it.

Just kind of give us a nice summary of why you like Dwayne Allen in the later rounds. Well, I think we were all expecting Dwayne Allen to hit free agency and Kobe Fleener to stay in Indianapolis, given the way he's played. But they decided to invest in Allen there in Indianapolis. And he's playing for Rob Chiswick, the offensive coordinator there, who loves the tight end position. He was in Cleveland for Jordan Cameron's breakout season. He was in Cleveland for Kellynne Winslow's.

Pro Bowl season in 2007. He was also the coach of Greg Olson in Carolina when Olson had his best season to date. So it's a very TE-friendly offense there. I think they are going to go three wide there with Philip Dorset as the third receiver instead of going two tight ends because they don't have their second tight end anymore. But Alan will still be involved. He's going to...

not get much coverage with those three receivers running around. And I think in the red zone especially, he's got a chance to really rack up the touchdowns. He might have 10 this year. Yeah, yeah. No, I definitely agree. This is Jason, especially now that my man, Kobe Fleener, is out of there. I see you have him ranked number four. We'll just leave it at that.

Kobe Fleener's got enough air time. But I wanted to talk to you real quick about a guy that I think is prime for a breakout year. I have him much higher in my rankings. I believe you have him down in the 14 range. And that's Eric Ebron entering his third year in the season. Calvin Johnson is gone. The opportunity is there. And we know from history that, you know, that first and second year isn't generally good for tight-in. Anyway, so your thoughts on Eric Ebron?

Well, I would be a little bit higher on him if it wasn't for this high ankle sprain he apparently has. Luckily, we avoided the...

the Achilles tear, anything like that. But it looks like it's a high ankle sprain. So I think it's kind of a rush to get him ready for week one. So he's missing some reps. But he was the tight end one for stretches last season. I think with Calvin Johnson gone, they're going to have some extra red zone targets there. And he can certainly make the leap. I think we're way too quick to write off rookie tie downs, especially guys that go in the first or second round when they don't immediately make a fantasy impact, but hardly ever do they.

make a fancy impact and fantasy football. Yeah, you're right about that. Andy here. I want to know your thoughts on the tight-in situation in New York, the Giants. You had Larry Donnell and Will Ty. How do you see that breaking down? And are they going to hurt one another? Is somebody going to emerge as that target for Eli? Well, heading into this offseason, I was favoring Will Ty because I thought he did a nice job last year.

But Donnell's come back pretty strong and apparently looks pretty good in camp. So right now I don't really know who's going to emerge here. And whoever does could end up with starter type numbers. But if they're rotating them like they have been in camp, then I think they might cancel each other out. Yeah, yep. Who is this year's Gary Barnage? The guy that goes completely undrafted. Do you see anybody that you think is...

You know, he's going to be there on waivers, but he has an opportunity to get a large target volume. Well, I think, you know, asking who this year's Gary Barnage assumes that there's going to be a Gary Barnage is here. But there are a few guys that are I'm interested in. I don't know about how deep your leagues go, but Zach Miller from the Bears, you know, really played well last year, especially when Martellus Bennett was sidelined. I think he's going 13th, 14th round, and some of the casual leagues he might go undrafted.

Going further down the rankings, Vance McDonald, if he wins that job in San Francisco and can hold on to the ball, they're going to push the pace there. The tight end is always involved in Chip Kelly's offense, and he had a good stretch last year.

where he posted tight-end one-type numbers. And then in Denver, I think Virgil Green. Yes, that was my next question, John. Thank you. Virgil Green, he's a great athlete, and this is his chance now to start. Gary Kubiak runs a very tight-end-friendly offense as well, and Daniels had all those great seasons or solid seasons with Kubiak, and I think Green has a chance. He did Bill Well in the first preseason game, so I moved him up my rankings. No love for Ryan Griffin.

I'm with you, John. If I see targets continue to go Virgil's way into preseason, I'll probably be jumping back on board. Let's move to the Ravens situation. I think they have still about 52 tight ends left on the depth chart, but we know that Mark Trussman can get the tight end involved. Do you have a sense at all of how that's going to shake out, or is that still just way too murky to do anything about?

Before I answer your question, has there ever been a team that has had more questions at all their positions than the Ravens is here? They have 15 of each. I still believe in Justin Fawcett. The only solid guy is Joe Flacco, you know, and that's because he's elite, right? Yeah, yeah. To answer your question, Ben Watson, I think they signed him for a reason. He showed what he still had in New Orleans last year, and I think he's got the inside track.

But Crockett Gilmore played well last year. They drafted Max Williams early, so there's a lot of draft capital invested in him. And of course, Dennis Pitta is trying to work his way back. So that's really a mess there. But I have Watson the highest, but I only have him at 27 right now in PPR formats. All right. We'll get you out on this one. You are a tremendous Packers friend. Am I correct in saying that? Yes, I'm a huge fan. My son is a part owner in the team.

Oh, well, congratulations. Let him cash that in someday. Very valuable. Do you have any interest in any of the tight ends from Green Bay, be the new acquisition or the old regime? Is there anybody you actually like for fantasy purposes? Well, I definitely think that Jared Cook is worth a stab in the dark at the end of the draft. I don't know how late he's going in recent ones, but he's back now from the foot.