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

fits with his ranking. He had four dud games, played better against worse tight-in defenses. Do you like him in the top six next year? Yeah, I like Jimmy Graham to finish well next year. Based on what we were just touting about streaming the position, I won't be drafting him because he will be drafted higher. But I do expect that he will finish higher. I mean, his...

probably going to finish as the top four tied in next year. We saw Russell Wilson having immense problems the first half of the year. And you also have the injury where you're going to be better two years after that injury than immediately after. You saw him missing a lot of practice this year. So I think Jimmy Graham has a good year next year, but we'll be too high to draft. Jimmy Graham is the, in many ways, opposite of Kyle Rudolph. He was the number one in terms of

yards per reception over 14 yards per reception more he was the number two in terms of yards per target so he's downfield we know what jimmy graham does he gets those downfield targets and so to me that that represents some big game potential because it takes one big tight-in play to outscore your opponent so what is he next year i think he'll be a part of the office he's a middle tight-in one yeah which i don't i don't draft guys who i think yeah he's going to be right in the middle

Right. If you, I go Ricky Bobby. Right. If you're not first, you're last, and that's all I care about. I either want the guy who I think is a locked and loaded top three guy, but more often than not, that draft capital is too much. Or I wait until, and then I start picking at the bottom, do the streaming. Yeah. In terms of, you know, he wasn't up there with the top targeted per game type of players. Like, you know, Rudolph was eight.

Oh, more than eight targets per game. Olson, still, more than eight targets per game. And the guy we're going to talk about in a minute, Zach Ertz was well above him as well. So Delaney Walker finished number five. What do you think fantasy owners are left with Delaney Walker? 65 catches, 800 yards, seven touchdowns. He missed a few games, right? One. One game.

Had a few busts, had some top 10 games, and was much better against much. And he had a big disparity between how he played against great, tight-in defenses, and poor ones. But you have a maturing quarterback. You have a changing offense. You have a run-dependent offense. And, you know, Walker seems very vanilla, but maybe that's what I want to end up with next year. Yeah, I mean, it depends on where he's going to go in the draft. He's 32 years old now, so he's certainly not.

Not getting any younger, but he is the number one target on that offense. So we'll have to see if they draft any. Was he again? Look into that. Didn't we make some kind of bet about Delaney Walker numbers before the season? The Foot Clan probably knows that. I'm going to take a little gander while you guys talk about him because I feel like we made like a bet where I thought Delaney Walker would.

I don't know. It's probably a Richard Matthews bet since we are part of that truther wagon. Yeah, and also Richard Matthews is very good. But, you know, going forward, Delaney Walker, if he doesn't lead them in targets, he's certainly, you know, one of the most important reads. He is that first read on third and on every third down. He was second in targets. Yes, behind. Richard Matthews. So, you know, I expect them to draft.

another good wide receiver or bring in another wide receiver. I feel like they need that. They're not, I feel like they're done with the Kendall Wright experiment. Yes. But Delaney Walker will be used. If he can fall deep in drafts, I like him. But I think he's, you know, a streaming type of guy. He had a lot of duds. What are you laughing at? You found it? Uh, maybe. Oh, oh.

Taze Sharp. Oh, yes. It's Taze Sharp versus Walker, isn't it? Oh, man, Andy's embarrassed. Yes. That looks so good for a week. Oh, man. I destroyed you on that. Was that me and you? Yeah. Oh, wow. Water coming your way. So, to be fair, Taji Sharp had 83 targets to Delaney Walker's 102. Really? That was how close it was? I thought it got blown out of the water on that one.

About 20 targets is a pretty good victory. I thought Tussar Sharp had about 12 targets after the beginning of the year. I just, I loved it. I searched the water bets for Walker. And the first thing that comes up is Andy Sharp, Jason Walker for most receptions. I'm glad you remembered that. Oh, it was receptions. It wasn't targets? Oh, well, then it's a bigger dispute. Oh, no, it was receptions. Yeah. Okay. It's still Walker. Sure, sure. I have conceded that with my despairing hands in my.

You should have done receptions to Marco Murray versus Tajay Sharp because Murray won that one too. All right, Zacherts, number six on our tight-in list. Half-point PBR is eighth most consistent, missed a couple games. You know, it was a slow start for him to find his way. Once again, he seems to be an end-of-year sparkle, which does nothing for fantasy owners. If you don't grab him off the waiver wire late in the year, he had five bust performances, which was the most of the top six performers.

He started the year. He started the year with a pretty decent game. 8.8 fantasy points for a tight end. I'll take it. Followed that up by missing those two games with injury. When he came back off of the buy, he had five points, two points, two points, four points. I mean, he was not, he was not even usable.

or serviceable at all until week nine. From week nine on, he was one of the best tight ends in the league. And he kind of did that the year before. So the question is, this is the truth episode. What is the truth of Zach Gertz? Was it the injury that took him out? Because he looked good game one before he got injured. And it took him a while to get back? The truth is, is that Mark Wahlberg and George Clooney got together. Carson Wentz was a brand new rookie quarterback.

We loved the potential averts with Bradford starting the year. The injury plus wins slowed him down. Look, do you like receptions? What are your thoughts on reception? I want a lot of them. Do you want the tight end that had the most per game in the entire league? Please sign me up. That's Zackertz. There you go. Number one in the league in receptions per game. More than Reed, more than Pitta, more than Kelsey, more than Rudolph. And that's including those games at the start of the year that really undo you. Here's the deal. Weeks 1 through 9 on a fantasy.

Uh, points per game. Half point PPR. He was 32nd. Sounds about right. Weeks one through nine. Not good. 10 through 16? Uh, I went. Yeah, uh, number one. There you go. The number one tight end. So the truth about Zach Ertz. My truth is that I want Zachertz on my roster if he's affordable. If he's going in the, in the eighth, ninth round again, sure.

Yeah, I would take a flyer on that because he has the talent, I think, and he's shown that he can do it. So if he falls deep enough, Zach Kurtz will be a guy, I'll scoop. All right. Cameron Brayt ended up number seven on the half point rankings for tight end. Really a waiver wire wonder was one of the footy considerations, I think, for WaverWire Wonder. Tide for eighth in consistency. In PPR leagues, he was 13th most consistent. So he was not extremely consistent, but we know what the tight-in position looked like this year.

You know, Winston loved him. Winston found him. You know, he was a guy that he could catch the ball downfield. 660 yards, eight touchdowns, only 57 receptions. So the touchdowns brought him up the ranks quite a bit. Thoughts on Cameron Brank long term. Well, his name's Cameron Brick. Did I say break? Brank. Oh, yeah. You're talking about something else. But Cameron Brate, it took a couple of weeks because coming into the season, if you remember the drama.

That was Austin Safarian Jenkins. Saffarian Jenkins was supposed to be the starter for that team. And then you had all that nonsense that happened with him on and off the field. Eventually Camer Brate became that guy. Camer Brate eventually evolved into really the number two target for that team. But you had the aging Vincent Jackson who eventually went down with injury. Then you kind of have auxiliary players and you have a...

Adam Humphreys, pronounced with it, Humphreys, of course, and Russell Shepard. So it was someone had to step up. Cameron Brate was the guy who stepped up into that. The question for next year, though, they have to get somebody. They have to get a wide receiver on that team besides Mike Evans. For me, Brate is just out of consideration of being a draft pick at all next year. Really? Oh, I'm not that low on him. Because Brate, to me...

It was a product of some of what they had available to them. You lost Sims. You lost so many weapons in that offense. And then Brate was, he was catching a touchdown every seven passes. I mean, I don't see that repeating itself next year. There's a possibility that doesn't. But we have a long history of James Winston really is his entire career from college through now. He does target the tide end frequently. Tyler Eifford, Cameron, break. Next year. It's Eifford. Okay.

Would you take Eifford over how many of the, of the seven guys we've mentioned so far, where would Eifert fall in for you right now? So Kelsey, Rudolph, Olson, Graham, Walker, Ertz, and Eiferts. Man, he would, Eiferts for sure in the top five for me. And I would take him over, it depends. The quarterback position up in Minnesota changes things a lot. But let's say if it's Bradford, I would.

No, I'll still take Eifford over. More touchdowns already in this past year, the injury played gear. He had more touchdowns than Olson and Ernst. Yeah, he means he's a, he's the top.

three top four guy for me we need to move move on get through more of these tight ends unless jason you had something you wanted to throw in there no the only thing i was going to say was good i'm glad you don't have anything all right no i'm just kidding i was just going to say he he did fare better against bad defenses and we should be pointing slightly slightly a point better but we should be pointing this out because certain teams use are tied in more against you know harder teams and certain you know different game scripts

But I want tight ends that do better against bad defenses. Usually it's not that way. But when I'm streaming, I'm picking players who are playing against the bad defense. I want the tight ends that have a history of abusing bad defenses because that's the ones I'm picking up. So this, Brate is a great streaming candidate. You're saying you think Brate might be great? Yeah. Booh. Martellus Bennett was the number eight. How did it?

Was the number eight tight in. Stop stealing my stick, fellas. These are my jokes. We're all dads. Martellus Bennett, number eight, nobody ever wanted to play him. No, you did. You just, whenever you wanted to play him, he went, and whenever you didn't want to play him, he was great. He was better against bottom 16 defenses, but that number skewed because you don't know, you know, exactly which one of those games were coincided with Gronk being out.

Bennett is fine. They can use two tight ends in, you know, in New England. I don't want to play him ever. But if you need a big monster performance, you always have the potential for, you know, one of those three touchdown games. Here's a pop. Here's a pop. Here's a pop quiz for you, all right? Martellis Bennett was second in the league in terms of reception percentage. So based on his targets, he caught 75% of the passes. So efficient is what I'm saying. He's also a free agent. Who was the most efficient tight-in catching 78% of their targets?

I feel like it has to be Kyle Rudolph, but maybe not. No, no. Ertz is five, Jordan Reed is four. Vernon Davis was three. Number one. Oh. It's a long shot. Jermaine Gresham? No. Oh, I thought. Oh, Doyle rule. Oh, Doyle. Jack Doyle. 78%. So catch a percentage. Sorry. Martell is Bennett. Distraction. I mean, you're talking like really, really bad games. Weeks.

Week number one, less than three points. Week three, under three points. Week seven, one point. I mean, he is similar, he's like playing a, it's that game of New England. It's with the running backs where, yeah, it was blunt all this year, but going in next year, it's going to be dicey. With Bennett, if he is back in New England, do you want one points or 15 points? He's going to be one of them. Yeah, one of them.

Yeah, I'm staying away. Here's the real question, Mark. We've got to get to the truth of Jordan Reed. Jordan Reed is a guy that was highly drafted after finishing last year's second behind Gronk had a real breakout year, super talented pass catcher, super injury prone as well. So with all of those things, you know, put together, do you take the risk on the injury prone nature that Jordan Reed is if he is in the fourth or fifth round? Sure.