Fantasy Football Podcast 2017 - The TRUTH About Fantasy TE's in 2016

Here we go. They're not going to use Kelsey. You had three catches, two catches. Then you have the explosion again. Seven for 101, week eight against Indianapolis. And then back down to Earth before the, before the Macklin injury. And then Kelsey really took off. All right. Let's climb through the tight ends. And Travis Kelsey was 85 for 1,125 yards and four touchdowns. Had 117 targets. And like we said, number one in half point leagues.

Number one in the consistency rankings in standard leagues. He had two top two performances and nine top ten performances. Played well against top 16 tight-in defenses with 12.7 points per game. Actually better. Yeah, better. Better. And he did against bad defenses. Yeah, three points better. So very good year for Travis Kelsey. Let's talk about number two. Kyle Rudolph ended up the number two tight-in. Ho-hum, went to work, grabbed his lunch pail, put on his hard hat.

And each and every week. And his shiny red nose. Yeah. And his shiny red nose. And every week. 16 games. Yeah. In my opinion, Kyle Rudolph, we have three guys tied. We use, you know, we've been using the formula that Tristan Cockrock. Yes. Thank you. Has come up with and has done for many years over at ESPN.

In my opinion, looking at the three that were tied for first place in consistency, which is Travis Kelsey, Kyle Rudolph, and Greg Olson, Kyle Rudolph, I believe was the most consistent. He actually only had three games under that six points in a half point scoring. And he was so important to what Sam Bradford was doing. Kyle Rudolph, I think, was probably your best spent tight-in pick this year. Yeah, he was an undrafted player. He was a waiver guy.

Absolutely right compared to, you know, Olson went at 41. Kelsey was 55. 55. You know, Kyle Rudolph played a little bit. He only had one top two performance, so he didn't give you those like otherworldly type of weeks, but he was very consistent. And look, 132 targets. I'm pretty sure that led the way amongst all tight ends. What I love about Kyle Rudolph is you have the 83 receptions for 840 yards.

as compared to Travis Kelsey was 85 receptions for 1,125 yards. Very different players. There's a reason that Sam Bradford led the league history in accuracy because he threw the ball about two feet. Rudolph was in a lot of ways, the Jason Witten of, you know, of yesterday. Of yore. Of what? Of lore? Of your. Oh, yeah. So, um, look, Kyle Rudolph, number two.

most consistent. I think a lot of his value and staying in this spot, you know, depends on the quarterback position. That's exactly what I was going to say. Who is the quarterback next year to start for the Minnesota Vikings? They gave up a lot for San Bradford. You have to assume they gave that up because there was great concerns. You remember that Teddy Bridgewater guy. Just a reminder, Teddy Bridgewater was set to start. He was one of the growing up and coming young quarterbacks. Went down in.

training camp with a horrific injury from all reports, and we don't know if he will be ready to go. I think most things that I read from the beat writers out of that area is that...

Sam Bradford will probably be the quarterback next year just because it's all dependent on Bridgewater's health. But I will say this. If Sam Bradford is the quarterback next year, I agree with you, Andy. That's what determines whether or not Kyle Rudolph is a valuable fantasy option. Or just a guy you stream on good matchups. And I think Kyle Rudolph will be a mighty fine pick next year. Well, we need to move on to your favorite player in football. Greg Olson. And I have my theories on this discussion. And Jason was alluding to the fact that.

Look, Greg Olson showed up, according to that methodology that we talked about, as the most consistent tight-in. He had nine top-10 performances, three top-two performances, over 1,000 yards, only three touchdowns on a very bad year for the Panthers, where Newton struggled, the offense struggled. Obviously, the touchdown numbers weren't there, and realistically, he put up a lot more yards against bad defenses. Now, the first tight-end ever.

With three consecutive thousand yards seasons. Ever. Ever. That's ever. In the NFL history. And Jason hates this man. No, look. I have an argument for you. But here's what happened. Here's what happened. We were putting this show together. And I saw that he was tied for most consistent. And I went, what? There's no way that this guy who bombed the second half of the year can, like if he did the whole first half of the year, great.

And then the whole second of the year was terrible. That's really inconsistent to me. So I'm arguing against Mike that he does not belong there. We need to fix us. And I start looking through the numbers and we start counting. How many times was he below six? How many times was he above 10? How many times was? And we start looking and comparing against other tight ends. Look, Greg Olson was not consistent. But he was more consistent than the other tight ends. That's how bad tight ends were this year. So I've got to say, Greg Olson, you...

I mean, you had an excellent year as a whole. I had this. I'm looking at his game log here. And I had this contention in my head that the reason you hated Greg Olson was because owning him in the beginning of the year was like driving a Ferrari. And then you had to drop down into like your 1994 accord. Whereas if you had some other tight end, you wouldn't have noticed the drop-off.

But I look at this, he wasn't very consistent. No, I know. That's what I mean. He had three double-digit games from week eight on. I know. That's terrible. It's terrible. And what I'm saying is... And he didn't score from week 10 on. From week 10 on, no scores. From week seven on three double-digit performances, it was terrible. And what I am saying is when I went and compared to... It still was more consistent. It was still better than other tight ends. That's just... Expectations. Stop drafting.

Tight-ins high. Stream the position next year and I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to use my third to last pick on a titan. This show is all about having more fun playing fantasy football and winning, right? Putting those two pieces together. I can tell you from experience. It's more fun to do the research, listen to the podcast, do your own homework, and take a flyer on...

Cameron Brate or Zach Ertz or, you know, a couple of years ago is Julius Thomas, maybe next year it's going to be Ebron or Hunter Henry, whoever it is. It's more fun to hit on that guy late in the draft with nothing on the line than it is to draft. Travis Kelsey in the third round, be committed, pot committed to starting him on your roster because that's what happens. You are stuck.

You spend early draft capital on a tight-in. That person, you might as well put a little lock sign on the roster spot on ESPN when you put him into this spot. Because you're not moving them out of there. How many weeks has to go by before you're disappointed enough to move in Hunter Henry off the waiver wire? You remember all the questions about Olson. What do I do with Olson? Oh, yeah. Oh, this is going to be the week. He comes back. Jason said it all half of the year. Yeah, I mean, that's why he hates it. That's why Jason made me print.

Made me printing out a 36 by 24 canvas print to put on our bathroom door at the studio. You mean on our Greg Olson room? Yeah. You're the worst. We got one bathroom named Jeff Fisher, and the other one's going to be Greg Olson, thanks to Jason. Yeah, no, thanks to Greg Olson. But here's what I'll say. So looking through that and me saying, I'm going to pretty much spend my third to last pick on a tight end, streaming the position, if we look at the consistency, which is there is none.

If you look at that, what that means is that you will perform better playing off of waivers. Not that you can perform the same. I'm not making the contention that, look, you don't have to spend high draft capital and you can get the same. I'm saying if you stream off of waivers, you will do better than just taking one of these guys, plugging them in, and every matchup playing them. Because...

Everybody did good against the Browns last year. Everybody does good against certain teams. Grab the guy that's playing against him, and you will have more consistency in your lineup. Stream tight-ins. That may be the trumpet that we blow all off season. Yeah. All right. We're going to talk about Jimmy Graham. Mike, I want a diary entry from you, but before we go into Jimmy Graham, we have to thank Pristine Auction for sponsoring the show. Absolutely love pristineauction.com. I was on there today.

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I'm forcing a diary entry from Mike here because I've been known to have a bad memory. But certain things stand out to me. Like the entire offseason, when Mike was frequently vehemently opposed to the Jimmy Graham comeback. And so Jimmy Graham's the number four tied in. So that's all I need to say before I hit the button. Okay. You start by saying Dear Diary. Dear Diary.

Mistakes were made. Mistakes were made. I doubted a man. I doubted a man I questioned. Questioned what he could do. His name is Jimmy Grammy as a tight end in the NFL. He suffered a catastrophic injury where his kneecap removed into his upper thigh region. And I doubted that he could return because everyone who's had that injury stinks.

But you are the one, you are the shining star who was able to get it done. Welcome back to health. Welcome back to fantasy relevance to Jimmy Graham. It is good to have you back, my friend. I have won many championships with you. You were on a different team and you were better back then. And yet so many question marks remain for Jimmy Graham. Because he certainly was backish. But that's the tail of the tape for the tight end position this year. It's just not.

Good enough. It's just not enough. Where would Jimmy Graham have been last year? I will look that up. Top 12? Is he in the top 12? Yeah, he would have been because the number 12 this year was about the same scoring as number 12 last year. 65 catches, 923 yards, six touchdowns. He seemed to ebb and flow a little bit with the emergence, reemergence of Tyler Lockett and then the injury of Tyler Lockett. But then you have Paul Richardson that burst out of the scene towards the end of the year. You have.

Thomas Rawls that came back and was actually playing well towards the end of the year. He would have been seventh. What's interesting is all the top guys are about the same point. All of them this season would have been after six and before seven. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. Basically last year we had a better top six. Yeah. You had Jordan Reed last year. Greg Olson had a monster year last year. Delaney Walker had a monster year. So Jimmy Graham, you know, where do you guys see him next year? He was the fourth most consistent, which fits with his...