SportsGuyRy’s 2018 Fantasy Football Rankings
Tight End Edition (11-20):
*Photo provided by Bucs Wire – USA Today*
First off, I’d just like to thank all of you who continue to come back and read my column around my fantasy rankings for 2018. I appreciate the @climbingthepocket team for the opportunity to share my knowledge and opinions and hope you all continue to enjoy reading my material.
Today we are going to be diving into the back end of the Tight End rankings. This is the first of a two part series. Checking in at 20 and working our way down to 11, ‘you will notice guys that you may want to target in the draft as back up options or high risk, high reward type guys.
Lets start with:
20. Jared Cook – Oakland Raiders – Ranked #13 TE to end 2017 with 72 points (4.5 per game)
*Photo provided by Raiders Wire – USA Today*
Jared Cook is a player who consistently disappoints. He has all the potential in the world and can never make the most of it. Cook is entering the second season with the Raiders and after a healthy 688 yard campaign for 2 touchdowns, he’s hoping for a jump in production with a healthy Carr and a hopefully more stable and consistent offensive system.
19. Austin Seferian-Jenkins – Jacksonville Jaguars – Ranked #26 TE to end 2017 with 43 points (3.3 per game)
*Photo provided by Jets Wire – USA Today*
Austin Seferian-Jenkins is someone who should constantly dominate the game of football. He’s a massive human at 6’5” 262lbs, that can run well and has reliable hands for the most part. Unfortunately, between off field issues and injuries, ASJ doesn’t play a lot of games. In the 64 total games he could have played, he’s played in about half of them. Last season was a good season by his standards with 357 yards and 3 touchdowns.
He’s put in a situation where there’s going to be opportunities to make plays for Jacksonville’s offense with no true focal point outside of Leonard Fournette and the run game. Teams will make Blake Bortles throw and he needs to make the most of the opportunities he will get.
18. Ricky Seals-Jones – Arizona Cardinals – Ranked #33 TE to end 2017 with 31 points (3.1 per game)
*Photo provided by SB Nation*
An unnoticed rookie out of Texas A&M, Ricky Seals-Jones really flashed what he could do last season in limited opportunities. Not playing until week 11, he went on a really impressive 3 game run from weeks 11 through 13. He was able to total out 201 yards for 3 touchdowns in those limited opportunities and now he should get a full look as the starter.
He does have concern with the off the field issue that came up this offseason, so that is something to monitor but typically Seals-Jones will likely be a backup option.
17. Mike Gesicki – Miami Dolphins – Not ranked last year – rookie year
*Photo provided by The Daily Dolphin*
Mike Gesicki is a very intriguing player in this years TE draft class. He might be more receiver than TE with exceptional speed and good size. He played at Penn State and was very successful.
Now he comes into the NFL being put in an offense with tons of opportunity with the departure of Landry, no incumbent at TE and a disappointing DeVante Parker getting hurt or underperforming. I like Gesicki as a flyer in the late rounds with high upside.
16. Cameron Brate – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Ranked #8 TE to end 2017 with 86 points (5.4 per game)
*Photo provided by JoeBucsFan.com*
Cameron Brate is another, very reliable TE who won’t wow you in any way but will be consistent. Over the last three years, he’s averaged 513 yards and 6 touchdowns. He’s remained fairly healthy and gets a solid amount of targets he takes advantage of.
I assume he’ll lose some of those looks to Howard, but there should still be plenty of work for him to do well.
15. O.J. Howard – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Ranked #17 TE to end 2017 with 67 points (4.8 per game)
*Photo provided by Bucs Wire – USA Today*
O.J. Howard in his second year after being the top TE selected in the 2017 draft, he should have an interesting battle ahead. Howard and teammate Cameron Brate are going to be battling for who gets more reps in the offense.
The general consensus was he would be the top guy with Brate in a contract year last season, however, they extended Brate and plan to continue using both for the foreseeable future. 26 receptions for 432 yards and 6 touchdowns was a great first season. After Mike Evans, there’s no true #2 target in Tampa so he could really seize a great opportunity this year with high potential.
14. Jack Doyle – Indianapolis Colts – Ranked #9 TE to end 2017 with 81 points (5.4 per game)
*Photo provided by Yahoo Sports*
Jack Doyle has always had someone pressuring him for his role. He was overlooked and knocked Coby Fleener to the Saints. He fended off Dwayne Allen and sent him packing to the Patriots. Now he has Eric Ebron in town and there’s concern he’ll lose work to him, however Eric Ebron has disappointed each year in Detroit and I expect more of the same.
Doyle put in 80 receptions for 690 yards and 4 touchdowns. The year before, he had a 584 yard season with 5 touchdowns. He’s not flashy and he’s not special, but he will get the job done. Andrew Luck will be throwing the ball this season, which should really help his fantasy stock.
13. George Kittle – San Francisco 49ers – Ranked #20 TE to end 2017 with 55 points (3.7 per game)
*Photo provided by ClutchPoints*
After a 515 yard, 2 touchdown rookie season, George Kittle had a phenomenal rookie season no one is talking about. He played really well no matter who was at the QB position.
Now with Jimmy Garoppolo at the helm for high end consistency, Kittle is in for another jump in production and success. There’s plenty of need for playmakers in the 49ers offense so he’s going to have opportunity to stand out. I like Kittle as a tier 2-3 TE.
12. Tyler Eifert – Cincinnati Bengals – Ranked #83 TE to end 2017 with 4 points (2 per game)
*Photo provided by Bleacher Report*
Tyler Eifert is a promising TE talent that just cannot stay healthy. After getting hurt in the second week of the season, he missed the rest. In his 80 possible games he could have played, he has only played in 39.
Remarkably, he has 30 touchdowns in those 39 games. So if he can stay on the field, he’s definitely someone you want on your team. If anything, he’s a flyer you take as a backup.
11. Jordan Reed – Washington Redskins – Ranked #44 TE to end 2017 with 30 points (4.5 per game)
*Photo provided by Stack.com*
Draft Jordan Reed and start praying. Similar to Tyler Eifert, he just can never stay healthy. Reed has never finished a season in his 5 previous years. After his career year in 2015 where he put up 952 yards and 11 touchdowns, it shows how great he really can be if he can even play 14 games.
If you are drafting Jordan Reed, you need to have a strong contingency plan in place as he likely won’t make it through the season. But enjoy the greatness while he is healthy with Alex Smith distributing the ball in that offense with little other weapons outside of Reed.
Tune in to my final article on the Tight End series where I unveil my top 10 Tight Ends for the 2018 fantasy season.
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