Fantasy Football - Top 10 TE Rankings + Draft Strategy - Podcast for 8/1

But it is, you're still paying a price and you're choosing him over Tetaroa McMillan or George Pickens or even, you know, Pacheco in that round. Like you do have to pay quite the price for somebody you're not a hundred on. Titans are much less about the player than about the positional strategy. Like to me, that's what you sacrifice where you take these guys. It means more than who you get. I don't think you like Hawkinson two rounds more than Njoku. No, absolutely not. So that's really what it comes down to. I mean, I mean, the last 17 games rolling that that Hawkins played in. So that's that's no injury, you know, it's pre-injury for half of that. He's still a consistency ranking of a C. And if you're sacrificing a George Pickens at a position you need multiple of to grab them. Like I like Hawk. I like Laporta, but strategy-wise, it doesn't make sense to take those guys. I had to look, Jason.

because you're making so much fun of Evan Egerman is forcing missed tackles. Oh, I'm so thankful for you, Mike. PFF has them charted at five, which is... Five missed tackles? Five forced missed tackles, which is... Okay, that's not as high as I was hoping you'd say. It's the same as Travis Kelsey and Mark Andrews, but this is relevant to our discussion earlier. Ertz? Because Ertz is lower than that. Okay. No, tied for number one on that list? Kraft. Tucker. All right. Not a mannable, apparently. Yeah. You know, what if you want to see? You want to see him to eat people on the field? I would love that. 15. 15. Fort Smith tackles Tucker. Tucker, I'm telling you. Tucker, you can unroll everything you said about him if you want because he is a monster. Yeah. I mean, oh, he, Jason's right. We did it. We convinced him to move craft up. I think I think that's that did the number one tackle breaker. All right. Let's move on to the big boys.

Number three. George Kittle. I mean, if there was ever a George that should just be one name only, this should be the guy that gets it, not Pickens. But George Kittle, I mean, right now the best bargain at the tight end position? Yes. Fourth round, don't have to spend the Bowers McBride. If he stays in the fourth, he's probably the best, like, it seems like the best value pick of the entire draft. Like, position agnostic. Yeah, I said that Najoku was my second favorite tight-in target. Kittle is absolutely my favorite target because there is a genuine difference between a guy who can finish as the number one tight-in points per game, which is what he did last year and he's even more necessary to that offense this year and just got a gargantuan bag of money. Like he is 100% along with Brock Bowers and

and Trey McBride as difference makers, weekly guys that are going to help you win your, not just like Hawkinson or Leporta where it's okay, it's him and and Han. It's like this guy went out and won me a week because he's a center point of their offense, not just a good tight end, you know, that's their second or third or fourth option. And he doesn't cost you what the other guys cost. His ADP is depressed because he's almost 32 years old. But when you look at 38 games, when you look at 38 games played with Brock Purdy, six catches a game, 67 yards, 0.61 touchdowns. And guess what? Where are you drafting him? If you want to pull the trigger on George Kittle, the guys and the names around him in drafts right now are people with question marks. They could be great. They could be a boat. Kittle is a boat.

You don't know he's above. Like Devante Adams. You don't take Kill or Devante Adams. You can take Devante Adams. That's fine. But you don't. Like the certainty that comes with Kittle is better than Devante Adams. Alvin Camara, maybe on the worst offense in football. That could be a really good pick there. You know Kittles a good pick there. Amarney and Hampton, same story. He could be awesome. It's just you're entering a tier in the fourth round where you're like, I think, I think this guy's great, right? But you know Kittles great. And that's, I think, what differentiates him. Well, and you've seen in times where a wide receiver goes down for the Niners and Kittles that much more important. And now you look at where they're entering this year earlier in this episode. Yeah. Earlier this episode, you talked about, oh, is Christian McCaffrey is the big beneficiary. He will be a beneficiary. But I think the biggest beneficiary in the passing game is George Kittle. You've got, you know, Joanne Jennings.

and an unknown Ricky Pearsall that hopefully takes a step forward. Brandon Ayuk is not going to be there to start the year. Debo is gone. They need George Kittle. Where, Mike, where do you think Kittle rises in terms of production when McCaffrey finally goes down? No, it's not impossible. It's not impossible. It's not impossible. Yeah, that's what you were saying. The whole discussion on George Kittle is the value though. So where does the value break? and it's no longer really exciting. Like, let's say it's... Front half of the third. Yeah. Front half of the third. Anything got to be back half a third. Anything 305 and beyond. Okay. I agree with that. My opinion. Because it's like the, if you're taking George... Kyle got him at 309 yesterday in a mock. If you're taking Kittle at like 302 as opposed, you know, like in a few picks earlier than that was Trey McBride, then just value-wise, that feels like it, you have...

kind of blown up the whole thing all right we have uh we have two names i kind of want to talk about together but number two train mcbride comes in at number two we all have him at either two or three in our rankings right now 25 years old unbelievable season almost 200 fantasy points highest target share among tight ends yeah 12.1 fantasy points for game absolutely dominant despite not scoring a pile of Mark Andrews touchdowns. I mean, that was kind of the running gag over the course of the whole year. I think he had like, what, he had a rushing fumble or a fumble recovery touchdown. Like they could not connect in the end zone. And it kind of, it became one of those things where like the odds of connecting went lower and lower and lower because the pressure to get him a touchdown went up and up and up. And I think having that just clean slate this off season is going to make a big difference.

The price for Tray McBride now is a second-round draft pick. Are you going to be happy? It's expensive. This is Kyron Williams, J.S.N. Lamar Jackson, Chase Brown. That's where those guys are going. It is. It's nerve-wracking, I think, because the advantage that some of those other second-round guys can give you where I think Dray McBride will be a top three tight-in. that is what should happen. It's just how big of a point gap is he giving you over like George Kittle or whoever's at number four. That's where at the end of the year you'll find out. And I don't know. I don't know if it'll end up being worth it compared to those other players. Yeah, that's the big question with the big two guys. But when you draft him, you have a great player that's just going to be locked into your tight end position. Number one. If you can figure out the other spots, then it's totally worth it.

I thought you had stopped talking. There's really nothing else to say about these guys. They're really good. No one. Brock Brock Bowers. The thing about Tray McBride. Brock Bowers comes in at number one for all of us. It's going to be a really, really sweet year for Brock Bowers. There's no question about his performance on the field. He gets himself a real quarterback. Yeah. Absolutely outrageous production last year. He also struggled with getting into the end zone to the degree that he's probably capable of. What is the discussion to be had here? I mean, obviously taking him, it's him instead of Drake London, him instead of Bucky Irving, him instead of A.J. Brown, him instead of Josh Jacobs. You might still be just a really happy person once you do it. Yeah, I mean, I don't think Brock Bowers is going to let you down. I don't think Trey McBride is going to let you down.

You do still. That doesn't mean you're not sacrificing something. You're sacrificing a really important running back or wide receiver to get those players. The reason Brock Bowers goes ahead of Trey McBride is because Brock Bowers was a clear-cut generational prospect. He came in two years ago. We were talking about Brock Bowers before he was eligible to come to the NFL. We don't talk about like even when Kyle Pitts was coming out and he was supposed to be great. That was. just that season. Brock Bowers from his freshman year on was this unbelievable talent in college. You know, he is the reason that Ladd McConkey never had a breakout age at Georgia because he soaked up all the targets, all the receptions, like he was the dominator there at tight end. And so the hope when you draft Brock Bowers is that what his rookie season was, which he finished number one, is nothing compared.

to what he can do. Because, you know, he scored 12 fantasy points per game. There's years where Gronk or Kelsey, they're up there scoring 15 fantasy points per game. And that's really when you're drafting him in the second, you're going to be okay if he does what he did last year, but it's not necessarily the best fantasy pick. What you're really hoping for that I don't think McBride can necessarily do, that I do think Brock Bowers could do, is elevate into lapping the field. I don't know as we wrap this. situation up all this countdown tight end countdown of if you guys have sleeper tight ends on your mind i want to throw out one name that i think will be a meaningful productive tight end instantly strange name no it is mason taylor of the new york jets yeah who is firmly entrenched as a rookie atop the dev chart in new york on a team that really look they don't know who the number two wide receiver they do they do it's josh reynolds and that

That is why Mason Taylor is an amazing, amazing potential breakout candidate. I like the talent. So I think Mason Taylor's starting, you know, I like Tyler Warren too. I think Tyler Warren could be outstanding. I do think you have a quarterback swap there. Colston Loveland could get heavily involved. I think Colson Loveland is going to be more hit and miss, but his hits are going to be really cool, cool situations, cool games, cool plays. Cool? I don't know. I kept saying that. Colston, Coolston. It's all cool, man. Do you have other late-round sleepers? Yeah, I would say that this is an exceptional rookie tight-in draft class and with what we've seen in the NFL. I would pay attention to all of them, not necessarily who you draft, but if someone pops off week one, if Elijah O'Royo, who has the opportunity now that Noah Fian is gone, if Terrence Ferguson, who was a very highly drafted, you know, Sean McBade knows how to get a man. The Seahawks and Terrence Ferguson, the Rams. Yeah, so I would pay attention to all the rookies. Obviously, Warren and Loveland.

uh very high first round draft picks those those guys will be drafted in your in your draft class the only other tight in i would say you got to know his name is breton strange breton strange is the evan ingram role that honestly anyone could do um from last year's dolphins uh so the way to try it's a new offensive system though yeah But he is already in camp being talked about as like the clear. He is he is the tight in one. Yeah. That's yeah. You know, and there's there's a lot of vacated target. So I think in a PPR league, that's just a name that won't be drafted that you might want to pick up early and stream. All right. A reminder, you can see all of our rankings, including those sleepers, breakouts, bust and values in the ultimate draft kit at ultimate draft kit.com. We've got quarterback and wide receiver ranking shows coming up. We got ice and fire. Ice and fire episode coming up.

another mock draft on the horizon and looking forward to all of it five days a week click that follow button click subscribe over on youtube stay with us for the entire season foot clan because it's going to be a lot of fun goodbye thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot dot com and follow us on twitter at the ff ballers