Top 10 TE Rankings + Preseason Reaction - Fantasy Football Podcast for 8/14

Dulcich was not the starter. Dulcich was the backup. And so I'm a little bit worried about that, but I also think it's preseason. And if you want to talk about the one thing we know that happens in preseason is that they don't tip their hands on offenses. They run a vanilla defense, a vanilla offense. And so, you know, they're talking about using him as the Joker. As the Joker role, I don't think they're really highlighting that yet. Jokes on you. So. I'm going to say I'm still sticking with Greg Dulcich, second year tight end for the Broncos. All right. Mike. So I like the Conklin pick. And if we're talking, you know, we're just trying to find some some real nasty boys here at the end. Guys, I just, I cannot stop myself with Dallas Cowboys tight ends. And it is Fergalicious Jake Ferguson who.

Was he's the starter? You're addicted to nasty Titans in Dallas. Nasty. I admit I have a problem. But here is why he was listed as a co-starter, but of, and this is information via PFF that with the starters, so Jake Ferguson ran, or was on there for 13 snaps of Cooper Rush, the starting quarterback of his 17. He ran nine routes. He was targeted on three of them. Again, this is Cooper Rush, not Dak Prescott, but Dak Prescott has always overtargeted the tight-in position guys, even if you feel like they don't deserve to get targets. But if Ferguson is the starter, it will not surprise me in the least if he ends up sneaking his way into the top 12th. Yeah, Dak Prescott got Dalton Schultz a doctorate. You know, he made him Dr. Schultz. So just because he loves to target the tight-in, I don't blame you at all for targeting Fergie.

All right, looking at number 10 in our tight-in rankings right now, David Najoku at number 10, 27 years old. I've got him in 9, Jason, at 10, Mike at 11, career high in receptions last season. I like him this year. And that has to do with the fact I like what I am seeing from Deshaun Watson. I think he's going to be outperforming people's expectations with Cleveland. And as a result, you really have a Mari Cooper. Dot, dot, dot on that offense. It's, you know, is it going to be Elijah Moore stepping into a role? Probably not a big one. You know, Donovan People's Jones. Yeah, I'll catch a couple passes down the field. But Dave and the joke is going to be the numbers you target to me. So I think, you know, you get him in the 19th round. You settle for him and you might be okay. Yeah, he's a player that I've always really loved the talent, the athleticism, but he's never put it.

together in a way that you want and it feels like when you're going into the seventh year in a career you can't be like this seven years this is the one this is the breakout's going to happen so i i'm i'm very very very skeptical um that he will all of a sudden break out and be a weekly relevant player this year it probably won't happen that being said you want a target of guy who has athleticism like david nojoku has that can be the number two target for their offense, which his situation could be and could be a good offense that passes more. You would expect the passing volume with Watson to go up over the Browns that we've seen. Certainly. The Joku with. So, you know, maybe Nojoku hasn't been a great fantasy asset because they've been such a run-heavy team, and that script could flip. Well, just do remember the beginning of last year, like the pre-Voldemort coming and tanking the Cleveland Browns,

David Najoku, week one was an absolute disaster because we were like, man, Najoku feels like a sleeper tight end this year. Week one shows up, he's not involved, and we're like, oh, crap. And then weeks two through seven before Najoku got injured, he was averaging five and a half catches and nearly 70 yards a week. That would be 93 and 1,100 pace. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is the Jacoby Brissette games, but it just, it shows. he had a stretch of last year where he looked like he was about to finish as a top 10 tight end. You can't talk about Najoku breaking out in year 7 without talking about number 9, Evan Ingram breaking out in year 7. These guys came in together with high expectations, and it is kind of ironic that we're sitting here talking about him at 10 and 9 in the 23 tight-in rankings. I like Najoku better than Ingram this year, and it just comes down to the fact that the target

hierarchy, I think, benefits Najoku better than it benefits Ingram, where Ridley and Kirk and Zay Jones and ETIA and company, Ingram could disappear easier, in my opinion. I think the highs will be higher with Ingram because it's a better offense. He's probably a bigger play guy, but the lows will be lower with Ingram. That's my take, and I got him back to back. Mike, you're the highest on Engel. I don't mind that take at all. My bet on Engram is a bet on the Jacksonville offense, being better than the Cleveland one. And Engram will, it won't come down to just touchdowns for him. He'll have, he will have games where he is, you know, he plays on almost 90% of snaps, and he's the tight end 28 on the week. That's going to happen, just like it did last year. But he will have games with, you know, six.

seven plus receptions. And those you really, I want to have some spike weeks here. They gave them some cash. Like the team is invested in Engra moving forward to be a part of this offense. And I'm just betting that Doug Peterson, who has given us some very good PPR tight end value in the past, I'm betting that it continues into next year. Yeah, I side with Andy here. I would much rather have. Nojoku solely because I know that Evan Ingham can't be the number two target here. When you've got Christian Kirk and you've got Calvin Ridley, those two guys alone, let alone Zay Jones also very capable. I just don't think you're going to have any level of consistency here. And if you look at last year,

You had 25% of his total fantasy points come in one game. That monstrous crazy. I thought you were going to say in like three games, four games. That was one in one game. That was the weather game, right? That was the crazy weather game where he had 33.7 half PPR points, 162 yards. Mike was naked in the streets. 11 receptions. Running. Two touchdowns. The Angram Hive was, my friend. You had sparklers in both hands. There were 22 of us in the streets. Yep. All the people who maintained our support for Evan England. Grab your sparklers. We're going outside. We're going streaking. I mean, my goodness. That was a great week. Number eight is Pat Fryer Muth of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Here we go. I think he gets a little bit, I think it gets a lot of bit hidden.

because of the touchdown problems he had last year. This is a 98 target tight end on an offense that literally couldn't throw the football across the goal line. It was historic, the low touchdown percentage that Kenny Pickett had. It's going to be better this year. In 2021, he had seven touchdowns on just 79 targets last year, two touchdowns on 98 targets. I do have a teeny bit of worry just because... of Darnel Washington's presence around the goal line. But Pat Frymuth is that guy. He's the truth at the position. The mute is the truth. The truth is the truth. And he will get loose. Yeah. I mean, he never had a great game by our definition on the consistency last year, but he had 50% good games, which means he's not going to kill you. He's going behind Ingram.

Yeah, all three of these guys are in the eighth round. The three guys we've talked about, the eighth round is a great place to get your tight in on average on sleeper. And if I'm taking a pick of these. Are you getting loose? Oh, I'm getting very loose. He's my tight end five. The talent that he has has been seen on the field. Like he's actually a really, really good smart tight end. He was the tight end eight last season when he only had two touchdowns. You know, you can basically say, you know, I would much rather target this guy who's going into year three and could take a step forward for an offense that we expect to take a step forward. Kenny Pickett looked pretty good in his preseason game. We haven't brought his name up in regards to how he played, but he was. As did Deonti and Pickens? Yeah, I mean, the whole offense looked much, much better. So, yeah. Calvin Austin. I want a tight end that can get 100 targets. He was right there last year. I want a young.

talented guy. And so, yeah, I'm in on the muth. There is a breakout possibility for him this season. At seven in our consensus rankings, we have a player I've ranked at three. So that's like my guy territory when that happens. Dallas Goddard of the Philadelphia Eagles. I've got him at three. Mike and Jason have them at eight. I haven't projected for 74 receptions just under 1,000 yards and five touchdowns. When you understand that ranking, like, that gets you three on my stat projections is 75,0005. You know, that's not outlandish when you look at what he was doing last year in the games that he was healthy. We know his impact on Devante Smith's production. If you go through the first 10 weeks of the season, 81 for 1,0006. That was the pace when he was healthy.

Came back, had a nice game, the final game of the year. You know, he's a young tight end still, and he's got the target share. I mean, almost 20% target share for Dallas Goddard. I just see him as a very, very, he's not the onesie that you have to spend up on, Kelsey Andrews. He's not the, you don't have to pay the Kittle price. But you just get middle six round, take Dallas Goddard. Maybe you have a top three tight in. Yeah, it's certainly in his range of outcomes. All the camp reports have been saying that there's just a great connection that Dallas Goddard's targeted like crazy by Jalen Hertz. You know, it's tough to have three weapons in an offense where it's like, oh, man, I like Goddard, I like DeVonzie Smith, I like A.J. Brown, can they all three succeed? Would it make you, because you like Devante Smith, you like A.J. Brown, would that prohibit the, would you like

Goddard and one of those guys, or would you try to avoid that? I would personally try to avoid it. Yeah. If I'm looking, I don't mind the... I mean, Kelsey and Tyreek Hill were great together. Sure. We were, but we had our targets focused in on two guys. Sure. I like Dallas Goddard, the player, it would not surprise me if he ends up, like you have Amanda. You have ranked a tight end three. But if I'm taking a... If I'm taking the shot on a six-round tight-end, we have a guy... who's going right around there in a couple spots that I just prefer a lot. Really? Yeah. Okay. You're talking about the walrus. That's who I'm talking about. We'll get to him. George Kittle comes in at six. Jason brought him up on the ice episode. I can't help. It just feels like George Kittle is the least respected player. Well, it's just it's also heard again. Yeah, he is. It's just understanding who George Kittle is. And it's like,

The Evan Engram, you know, that was a huge spike game. That's pretty much what you get with George Kittle of. You'll get a humongous monster weak winning performance, which that's sensational. I'm not going to, I don't want to devalue that George Kittle has weak winning appeal, but he's going in the fifth round. He's being drafted as the tight end for right now, and it won't be consistent. So that's, he's a great player, but. Unfortunately, just the way that the market goes for the tight end position and the way that fantasy works, I'm probably out on him. There's going to be, you'll be in leagues, though, where maybe everyone else is out on George Kittle as well. And then he becomes a value. Because if he's going back of the sixth and the seventh, then now I'm going to be really interested in Kittle. But that fifth is very difficult to handle.

I would make him a strong trade target if for some reason one of their other primary targets goes down. Sure. Like you know how involved he'll be if they didn't have an Iute, they didn't have a Debo and they didn't have a CMC. And, you know, all three of those players have dealt with injuries at times. And so, you know, last year, Jason jumped on the opportunity to trade him away. Oh, he did trade him away. Yeah. That's right. And that worked out with Dalton Schultz and it worked out with Kittle. Kittle ended up having a big. finished of the year. But it's hard to support four options, like you said. We're looking at number five. It's not like I disagree with you, Mike. I haven't met four. So Goddard at three, Waller at four. One of them is a situation that you know, right? Jalen Hertz, you know what to expect. Dallas got it. You saw the rapport, the age. He's younger by a couple of years. And so you kind of understand that. Darren Waller, this has been a number.

two and number three tight end historically. So you know that, but it was with a different team, different quarterback. So he was my fire pick on ice and fire. So I'm in, Mike. But talk about why you've been rising so much on Darren Waller. It comes down to the other weapons on the team of all reports out of camp. It's going to be Slayton, Hodges, and the third wide receiver that I'm hearing. out of Giants Camp is actually Paris Campbell. Yeah. Didn't play in preseason, I believe. So if those are the three, and I'm not like, Isaiah Hodgins had a definitely a very interesting end of the season. Maybe he is a good player, but those three wide receivers, they need someone to come in here and be the true number one. And that's what the Giants traded for. They traded for Darren Waller. He can come in and like back when we were having those huge years for Waller,

for the Las Vegas Raiders. We're talking a 24% target share, a 28% target share. That's why I like him more than Goddard, because in the range of outcomes is, Darren Waller is the number one guy for the New York Giants. Dallas Goddard, maybe a week or two, he could be the number one player for the Eagles. But on the season, he can't possibly be the number one when you have A.J. Brown and Smith, so Waller, to me, makes, is a huge upside pick, his draft price and does not reflect where I think he can go, going at the back of the sixth. Yeah, I completely have risen recently on Darren Waller. I had him right from the get go in the ultimate draft kill when we statted people out as the number one target in the offense, but I was skeptical whether or not he still has it. All the camp reports have been beyond glowing about Darren Waller. He's just dominating completely like I don't know who the beat reporter was.

to reference it, but it was a really funny comment talking about how he's convinced that when the coaches make Darren Waller come off the field, it is to force Daniel Jones to have to throw the ball to someone else because he's just, he's just targeting him over and over and over, and he's been dominating. So if you're telling me that a guy, you know, 30 years old. About to be 31. 31, that is not a death knell at the tight end position. We've seen big volume. big behemoth tight ends really dominate for fantasy at that age still. So I'm not as concerned. And, you know, he is, he's just their best target. So when you can get a guy in the sixth round who will have the most targets on the team, is talented, has done it before, yeah, I think it's a really, really good shot to take. I would much rather have him at the back of the sixth than Kittle in the fifth where, you know, the players.

I feel like there's a big break there between the fifth and sixth round on the quality of the other positional players. And number four is Kyle Pitts. I have him down at seven, Mike at three, Jason at four. Yeah. I promise you that mine is not, it's not punitive. It's not a punishment for last year. Kyle Pitts, here's what we know. Here's what's true. Kyle Pitts is a freak athletically and is always capable of a big play. Here's what we know. 27 times he's played football on an NFL field. The big plays didn't come very often because we can blame everything under the sun, but mostly it's just been, they haven't happened. The quarterback can't get him the ball and the plays don't work out. The drives aren't sustained. I don't have him that high because nothing this year about Kyle Pitts has changed from the last two years. So he's always been capable of being the number one tied in on a week. Always.

That was true two years ago as a rookie when he had a thousand yards. It was true this year or last year, and it's true this year. That's always going to be true. But I don't think the quarterback situation or the offensive philosophy have changed in any manner that makes me confident that it will happen this year versus the last two. Therefore, he's at seven. That was where he finished as a rookie. That's why I got him at seven. That's what the numbers bore out. It doesn't matter. Matt Ryan Stunk, Marcus Marietta stunk, and Desmond Ritter, I don't know what he's got. And if you get to throw the ball 18 times and you're maybe completing 50, 60% of them, you better hope they're really, really big plays for Kyle Pitts. I've watched enough Kyle Pitts over two years to know that if you miss your couple of chances, I just walk out of the room. It's like if he has a target in the middle of the field, he doesn't have it. I know I got 15 minutes to make a sandwich and do something else because you're not getting another one for a while.

Yeah, it's one of those. And you guys got them very high. Well, we have him high based on his talent. He's obviously a very talented guy. He's also still young. You know, tight ends take a while to really get into their NFL groove, even though he came out and as a rookie had a thousand yards. I mean, he's younger than Dalton Kincaid. Still. Still. He is a young, crazy athletic. Say young one more time. I dare you. I heard young so many times. He, hold on. Crazy athletic and young. I've known that for two years. Give me something else. Okay, he is 22 years old. How about a 60% bus rate? Can we get that out there? Dallas got her bused at 8% of the time. And Dallas got her is going around later. That's crazy talk. I will say that I would rather have a later.

Dallas Goddard than Kyle Pitts and I would rather have Darren Waller. Darren Waller than Kyle Pitts as of right now because we have continued to see camp plays where it's what you saw last year. It's Kyle Pitts dominating and not being able to. receive a pass towards his hands. So there are fears there. The reason I'm willing to still take shares of Kyle Pitts this year is because last year it was insane. Last year you're paying a second round, a third round pick because the talent for him to take that leap forward. Like let's just say Desmond Ritter gets the job done and the Falcons are pretty good in a weak division and their offense works really well with Bijon Robinson and Drake Lurie. If they're a good offense, Kyle Pitts,

could actually come out of this season as, you know, that number two tight in. That's not really in the range of outcomes for a lot of these other players. So if you are spending a six, I've seen plenty of drafts where I've gotten Kyle Pitts in the seventh round. And at that point, it doesn't cost you that much to take the swing for the upside. You know, you're going to win a league by getting upside players. Darren Waller is much, much, much safer. The targets are going to be there. But I do think that because of how young Kyle Pitts is, he can really succeed. He was just born. Jesus. Just born. It was so last year. It was October 6th, 2000. In games played, he was getting a 27% target share. There's just not. A target share in Atlanta doesn't matter to me. Because the pie is so small, it wouldn't even fill up a baby. The pie? The pie is. I'm still wearing last year.

Yeah, look, I get it. Because I analyzed it and analyzed it and analyzed it. And I kept coming back to young, young talent, talent, young talent. And the way that I projected the Falcons, I think that the passing work will act, it will go up. It's going to be Kyle Pitts and Drake London. It's going to be a hyper-focused target situation that we do love. Why would it go up? Why would it go up? And wouldn't it go to Bejohn? I mean, Bejohn is going to take way more targets out of that. Bejohn, we'll get some. But just because historically, when teams pass that few of an amount of actual passing attempts, just historically, they have gone up the following season. So I'm betting on that. I'm betting on the target share. And it's just this is a, you don't have to risk, like Jason was saying, like last year. But this is a ceiling pick that if Kyle Pitts hits.

Tight-in three, tight-in two is in the range of outcomes. Desmond Ritter, maybe he's better than Marietta. Maybe he's not, but we also have a rip-cord of safety for the Atlanta Falcons of Taylor Heineke. And if Taylor Heineke comes in... he's shown us that he is capable of getting fantasy production for his players. The sixth round is too high of a place to draft the player that you might not want to even play at the position week to week. That's the biggest concern I have for me. If you bust 60% of the time, whether you spent the second or the fifth or sixth, you do have to at least acknowledge you might have to play a different tight end. That was the impossibility of drafting pits last year, is you had to play them every single week because of the draft cost.

If you spend a six-rounder on a tight-in, you're not drafting another tight-in, right? Nope. So Kyle pitches your gun by hook or by crook, and that'll be the gamble. So maybe Desmond Ritter will. Andy is out. I know. Yeah, I don't. I can't. He'll have great week. T.J. Hawkinson comes in at three. He's fine. You know, I don't know why the malaise around Hawkinson, although he has banged up right now. He has not been practicing. last year from week nine on 22% target share in an offense that throws it like a bunch yeah i mean 8.6 targets a game yeah but he's also going in the late fourth he's being selected as the third tight end off of the board it he feels lockable in your lineup though he oh certainly yeah but

Like every week you can be like, hey, maybe I have a big week. And if I don't, I'm still going to have eight targets. His pace as a Viking was 146 targets, 102 receptions. That being said, you weren't always happy. You know, he would have a week with six targets and have five fantasy points. The way they utilized him was on the shortest little worthless routes possible. So. For me, I want Hawkinson in a PPR league because that's where his value is going to come. Not that he can't score touchdowns. He could with this offense, but his real difference-making approach is the consistency of the targets, but he wasn't getting a lot of yards on that. It was 800 yards was the pace. That's crazy. To get 100 receptions and not crack 1,000 yards is putrid. And that was kind of how he was utilized.

What are you signing up for? Do you want to sign up for targets? Because it's almost double the Kyle Pittspace or do you want to sign up for big plays? And that's where if I'm in a PPR league, I would sign up for targets if they both had the same cost. The issue with Hawkinson is I don't know that he is good enough to sacrifice a fourth round pick. That's just too expensive for me. Mark Andrews and Travis Kelsey at two and one, not a surprise. The only surprise here is that Travis Kelsey was You know, he spent a year being shunned by the fantasy community all the way down to number two last year in the ADP. I mean, Mark Andrews was going ahead of him. Here we are. He's reclaimed the throne. And both of these players are extremely safe. Mark Andrews has missed some time recently. But he's, you know, he's 28 years old, not even 28 yet. Kelsey's older. First five weeks of last year.

was on pace for 110 catches for 1289 yards and 14 touchdowns. I think that they're, I've risen on Andrews because I have become less confident in the trifecta of wide receivers that they have. Zay Flowers still has a lot to prove. Beckham is old. Bateman is injured. Here we are with Mark Andrews, tried and true, ready to rumble. Yeah. And if you're going to throw the ball more, more plays. There are very few situations in the NFL. It's Mahomes Kelsey and Jackson and Andrews that are mind melds at the positions. My question for Mark Andrews comes down to where are you willing to draft him? Because look, if you want Travis Kelsey, you're taking him in the middle of the first round. I mean, Kelsey should finish as the number one tight end on the year. But for Mark Andrews.

It comes, because Jason, you love Mark Andrews this year, but it comes down to where are you actually positionally in the draft? Because it's easy to say, no, I would much rather pass on Kelsey and I'll scoop up Mark Andrews in the third round. Well, what if you are slotted? Because he's the, his ADP is the 303. What if you're slotted that you're the three, oh, wait, you're the 309, that your chance of actually getting Mark Andrews is. goes down dramatically the further you go along in the third round. So are you willing to take him in the late second round or wherever you are in the second? It's a good question. I'd be curious. Yeah, the reason that I love Andrews so much this year is because of where he's going in that third. It's because of the value that you get being able to have your first two picks ahead of him. If you look at ADP, and I get him in the...