Top 10 Tight Ends + Draft Strategy & TE Sleepers

If you're a Foot Clan member, you get another Thursday show when we get into the Foot Clan mailbag, a bonus show. So next week, you're entering the fire. I mean, monster shows. And yes, Brooks is probably about to say, then Friday night, we close it out with a live show in Phoenix at the Crescent Ballroom. Grab your tickets at Ballers Live.com. Once again, a reminder, if you already have tickets, which a lot of you do. Thank you. It's going to be a sensational show. The Star Time has moved up.

An hour. So you can check the website. Doors at 6. It has the accurate time. The show will start at 7. Oh, that's going to be great. Yes. That's going to be great. And if you can't be there, that show will be the, is it the Monday show, Brooks? Yes, sir. It'll be the Monday show. Also, bring clothing that is not easily set on fire. Because of the hot takes. Because of the takes. Scorching. It'll be hot. Also, bling. Bling your clothing as well. Hey, look, if you want to bedazzle a shirt or two, you do you? Yeah.

All right, let's get into the news. News and notes from around the league. All right, Delaney Walker. Injury. His toe during practice on Thursday. Do we know anything else? We don't know much, no. We got to wait for more reports to come out. I love you. It was going in my head, and I actually held it back. So the fact that you went there is... You're making us proud. It's lovely. Yeah, I will say this. Palcetto practice. If it turns out that Delaney Walker...

has any sort of serious injury. I will lower Marks Marioada in my rankings. He's a big key to this offense and to Mariota. I do believe in Jonah Smith, the tight-end backup, but you can't just plug in and be Delaney Walker. Are you lowering Marioita if you find out Richard Matthews is going to miss time in the beginning of the year? I have already lowered Marioita a little bit. I think he is down to like 12, so he's still higher than the consensus in my rankings. I believe in him. All right.

Let's be peaceful here. Jamal Williams suffered an ankle injury during the Packers' second preseason game. Do we know anything else about this? He thinks it's minor. When a player says something is minor, I wait a little bit. Guys said it was minor. Nick Foles said it was minor. Well, yeah, yeah. So with Jamal Williams going down, Aaron Rogers being suspended, or I'm sorry, not Aaron Rogers. Please, hold on, pause. Let me unsay that. Aaron Jones, Aaron Jones being suspended the first two games.

Very nice start potential for Ty Montgomery. Yes. Yes, it is. Jason, the only thing that Jason loves more than being right or essentially what we call, you know, in fantasy, he's taking a victory. I don't know what you're going to say that is that I love more than being right. You love being right when it's a de facto victory.

And the war of attrition has begun for the Green Bay Packers running backs. And right now, Ty Montgomery is going to win the starting job just because he's healthy. I'll take it. You're correct. That's what I said. You love it. We got news that Jerich McKinnon is going to be out of action until week one. So if you think he's coming back for any practice or anything like that, he is not. That makes me.

A little less cozy. Yes. That's a split decision maker for me now. If I'm staring down Jerry McKinnon and somebody in the same tier, maybe I don't go with Derek McKinn. Why take the risk if you have another guy in the same exact tier as Derek McKinn? That's the nature of injury right now. It's kind of how you feel about Doug Baldwin. If you have somebody in the same Doug Baldwin tier, why take Doug Baldwin? Who, Doug Baldwin was seen sprinting, at least. That's always good for the whole. Just saying we have at least, we have a little tiny update.

All right, Samajé P. Ryan went down with an ankle injury. He was also the second running back on the field. Those of you out there saying, why do you like Rob Kelly? Well, that was before the injury. The reason why is because they like Rob Kelly. It doesn't matter who we like. We could love Samajie P. Ryan, but if he doesn't get on the field, if he fumbles the football, if he rolls his ankle, he's not going to play as much. It was ironic because Rob Kelly had that first drive and he was looking very Rob Kelly. Yeah, he didn't look great. Always got two or three positive yards, which is never enough.

And then Somaget P-Rine came in, had this electric run, looked great. That's where he got injured. And then Kelly, back in. Nick Foles, as Jason said, forced from the preseason game with a strained throwing shoulder. If it's severe enough to hold him out week one, and Carson Wins isn't back week one, you can downgrade the entire Philadelphia Eagles offense for week one with Nate Sudfeld. Yeah, the Sudfeld. Get him in there. The Sudfeld experiment will be a scary one.

Rex Burkhead dealing with a, quote, slight tear in his knee. I don't even know what this means. Patriots beat reporter Jeff Howe says if he could have played last night, it had it been important. It's been deemed a minor injury. So it's clearly a, I don't want a minor tear. A pain tolerance type of situation here for Rex Burkhead. How does it make you feel, Mike, is the Burkhead truther? Not good. You got your Birkenstocks on? I wish I could. Are you taking them off? They're not off.

I will say that. They are not off. You're rolling them down a little bit? I might have to put on some socks first before I put on the Birkenstocks, and that's not a good look. No. And you know, you know that. Isaiah win. First round, offensive linemen from the Patriots suffered a torn Achilles last night. He's out for 2018. That's unfortunate. You hate seeing that. It hurts the depth for the Patriots offensive line. I know we don't have a lot of time to detour here.

But I can't help but believe that the limited amount of practice that they allow players to go through now contributes to injury. You go out there in the preseason, you're going 100% and you are so limited now in the NFL and what you can do in pads for how long. I wonder how much that contributes. Maybe players are just bigger, faster, stronger, and that just happens. But it seems like if you're not.

able to go 100% in practice as much as you need to before the season. You get out there. It's just obviously a freak injury, unfortunate. Ben Rothersberg has cleared the concussion protocol, and Des Bryant is indeed visiting the Browns reports this morning that they are still talking about a contract. He stayed in Cleveland overnight to meet with the team, according to Rotterworld. And look, we might have a deal. We might not. Right. This is one of those situations where I think the Browns are looking at it as a...

Look, if we can grab Des Bryant on the cheap, why not? Why not? But Des, I think, wants, he wants the perfect scenario. He wants short-term, prove it deal, plenty of money, plenty of opportunity. If I'm Des Bryant, is my prove-it opportunity being the third option in Cleveland?

No. Yeah, no. It's not. What are you going to prove? You're going to prove that you can still play football in 2018 because if the Browns don't sign him, he's waiting for some injury where he needs to come in. I, you know, look, I think he will get the contract. I think he'll get, I'm going to call my shot. One year, nine million. Whoa. We'll see what happens. Too much money. Yeah, I mean, maybe. I don't think Nes gets them. I cut it five. Yeah. We'll see. Hey, before we move into our top.

12 tight ends in our sleepers at the position. I want to thank Fandual for sponsoring the show. It's been a long off season without football. Fan Duel's been getting it tight and getting it right. Nice. That means more. That Fandle is ready for more and more ways to challenge your friends. More ways to win. You've got to check out their new beat the score contest. It's great because it pays out everyone who hits a certain score. All you have to do to finish in the money?

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When you make your first deposit on Fandual, just sign up at Fandual.com slash footballers. That's Fandual.com slash footballers. Age and state restrictions apply. And hey, football's back. So go to the games. And if you're going to these live events, use Seatgeek, longtime supporter of the show, and really the best way to get tickets. Seekek, we all use it. I've got it on my phone. Use Seekek, get a seat treat. Oh, I like it.

You listen to Sea Geek, that's good stuff. No, look, they pool a bunch of different sites. Okay, so they're doing the work for you, and they make it really, really easy. They color code the grid. You look at each section that you want. You find the big green circle, a couple of taps, and you've got tickets, and every purchase on Seekkeek is fully guaranteed. It's so easy, it's so cost effective, and it's fully guaranteed. So that's, you know, Seat Geek's the way to go. It's not just sports too.

Get your loved one tickets to the concert. It's a good time. So here's the best part. Our listeners are going to get $20 off the first Seat Geek purchase. Just download the Seat Geek app. Enter promo code Footballers. That's promo code footballers for $20 off your first Seat Geek purchase. Seat Geek Life's an event, and they have the tickets. Tight-ins. All right. We're going to talk about our top 12 consensus tight-ins and some sleeper picks at the tight-in position. Guys, we think can surprise. We'll debate. We'll discuss. We'll get you right.

for 2018 at the tight-in position. I want to throw something out there. After week two of the preseason concludes, I think we will come back on Monday and bring you some sleeper guys, some guys that we see, you know, it's two weeks in. Are there some players to be aware of? A player like Shelton Gibson last night, the leading receiver, five for 90 in a touchdown, he's been impressive. And if Aguilar, by the way, he's a wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. Thank you. Apologies. Great game last night.

2017 draft pick, fifth round guy. But if Aguilar and Jeffrey and some of the weapons are not, you know, he's a deep league pick to me, or a deep league watch. Yeah, I'll keep him at a little watch for now. All right. Number one. Rob Grankowski, tied in for the New England Patriots last year in 14 games, 69 receptions, 1,084 yards, 8 touchdowns.

Eight touchdowns is just he could do that asleep. Yeah, that takes two games for Gronk. I mean, he was dominant, especially in the year. You won titles with Gronk. Yeah, I have Gronk as my number one tight end. Ooh. Yes. Bold. Should have saved that for the live show. I know, I know. Is that because he's finished there three of the last four years? Yeah. So we talk about tier-based drafting.

What that means, you know, that's kind of how we use the ultimate draft kit. Tier base means that there's a break between one group of players and the next. And so if you can get your players to be grouped in kind of the group ahead of the next, you're going to have an advantage over your opponents. Gronk is his own tier.

and he has been his own tier for several years. Even if he doesn't finish the year as the number one tight end, maybe he misses a few games. When he's out there playing, he gives you a positional advantage that is actually worth the early round pick. Usually with tight ends, I punt the position. I stream. I grab someone late. I try to, you know, do that strategy where I'm going very late and trying to find someone that I think could break out and be a weekly starter.

But Gronk is a complete difference maker, and he makes up the points in the gap between him and everybody else you're going to be playing every week from that loss of whoever you're drafting in the second round. So I think Grunk is a valuable second round pick this year. Mike, his current average draft position is the 11th pick of the second round. So that's what it's all about, right? Yes. This show doesn't exist to tell you how good Rob Grunkowski is. Your eyeballs in the last 10 years will tell you that.

Gronk watch does not mean you're watching film of Rob Gronkowski. Gronk watch is his ADP. Where is he going in drafts? The back of the second round is, that's easy. That's easy for me. That means that Gronk is on my team if I'm anywhere close to there. And that's not usual for Gronk. When he finishes as the number one tied in, he skyrockets into the first round where I want nothing to do with him.

The opportunity cost of passing on that stud running back or the locked in stud wide receiver, no thank you. But at the back of the second, this is why being at the beginning of the first round this year is, it's just not fair. It's not fair that someone's able to grab Todd Gurley or Levion Bell come back, get Gronk, and then another elite wide receiver after that. So it's, Gronk is going to be on a lot of my teams.

So I'll say this, though. At the beginning of the second, I'm not going to take it. I was going to say how early in the second round will you make the jump? Middle to middle to back? Yes, it has to be the second half of the second. That's where I've landed in because you can get Keenan Allen and Devonte Adams still right in the middle of the round. But after that, I'm going to grab grunk. All right. Number two. Our consensus number two overall tied in this year.