Undervalued TEs

Sigmund Bloom - For whatever reason, Drew Bledsoe seemed to forget Jason Witten was an eligible receiver in early part of the 2006 season. Witten had only 16 catches for 165 yards in 5+ games with Bledsoe, which masked an excellent stretch with Tony Romo -- 51/ 646 over 10+ games. New offensive coordinator Jason Garrett wants to use Witten the same way the Cowboys used Jay Novacek when Garrett was the backup QB in the 90s -- which should mean more downfield routes and red zone targets. Witten is a talented receiver with a good QB and his team wants to feature him in the passing game -- he's a steal at TE11.

Will Grant - OK, 11 Tights ends off the board by the middle of the 9th round is one thing. But Witten being #11 is another. Witten started slow last season because of Bledsoe, but once Romo took over, he was much more involved in the passing game. Add in the fact that the new Cowboy offense will be more aggressive in the red zone, and I think you're going to see Witten return to the 5-6 TD range again next season. That should move him well into the second tier of TEs, and make him excellent value as the 11th TE off the board.

Jeff Pasquino - After consecutive top-6 seasons in 2004 and 2005, Witten dropped to #12 last year. The main difference was the number of TDs he caught. In 2004 and 2005, he caught 6 TDs in each. Last year, however, he only caught one. With the QB switch from Drew Bledsoe to Tony Romo, Witten should return to being a focal point of the offense. Additionally, the coaching changes should result in a more aggressive passing attack this year. The single TD catch was likely a fluke rather than a sign of things to come.

Mark Wimer - Witten is going off the board as TE #11 in drafts as of mid June. Strange for a guy with 60+ receptions and 750+ yards receiving each season the last 3 years. He did score only 1 2006 TD -- but honest observers will admit that TDs are hard to predict from year to year. Witten had 6 TDs each year in 2004 and 2005 -- he should hit or surpass that this year. He's the #5 TE on my draft board as of mid-June.

David Yudkin - With only one touchdown last season, Witten saw his ranking drop from 6th to 12th after ranking as the #3 tight end in 2004. While that trend is disconcerting, it's only logical to expect Witten to have more TD this year. The Cowboys are working on getting Witten some deeper routes, so he may see some extra yardage on some plays. He's still an integral part of the offense and he's one of only five tight ends to have had 60 or more receptions the past three seasons. He should make a run at the Top Five again and should be able to approach the production of other tight ends drafted four rounds ahead of him.

Andy Hicks - Is Alge Crumpler the Rodney Dangerfield of Tight Ends? He constantly gets no respect in Fantasy circles. Last year Alge Crumpler finished higher in fantasy rankings than Todd Heap, Jeremy Shockey and Tony Gonzalez, but is going to get selected at least a round later? His performance seems to be regarded by many as a fluke. He is the only player Michael Vick truly trusts to make the catch and could easily increase his reception and yardage totals to the levels he recorded in 2005, without losing many of the touchdowns. The excellent quality of Tight Ends available this year means that you could find yourself with a veritable steal in the 7th or 8th round in Alge Crumpler.

Jeff Pasquino - Crumpler finished as the #2 tight end in FBG scoring in 2006, and he has been a Top 5 TE for four consecutive years. With comments coming from the new head coach Bobby Petrino that he wants to see QB Michael Vick's completion percentage rise, it would seem that shorter passes to Crumpler would have to be a big part of that recipe to get that accomplished. Further, the wide receiver options for the past several years have been atrocious at best. The addition of Joe Horn may help, but he may be on his last legs and certainly should not be a primary target any longer. With so many questions still remaining, Crumpler should be the #1 receiver for the Falcons once again for 2007.

Mark Wimer - Alge Crumpler is scaring off some fantasy owners due to off-season knee surgery (arthroscopic knee surgery to clean out his left knee), but all accounts indicate that he should be fine for training camp. The teams' receiving corps has once again lost Brian Finneran for the season (ACL surgery), leaving the aging Joe Horn to lead Michael Jenkins and Roddy White in the unimpressive Falcons' WR stable. With such a dearth of quality WRs, Crumpler should easily meet or surpass the 103 targets for 56/780/8 that landed him at #2 among fantasy TEs last year -- it's hard to call the 5th TE off the board (on average) a bargain, but he certainly has upside beyond the 5th TE selected. He may be the best "high-cost" TE this side of Antonio Gates, folks.

Mike Brown - Perhaps I was/we were a year early on Watson. Last year, several staffers were incredibly high on Watson, even suggesting he'd put up Gates-esque stats. While that was probably far-fetched on my part from the very beginning, we may have been looking at the situation incorrectly. The theory was that with no other real receivers in town, Watson would get all the good looks. The problem with that logic is that defensive coordinators knew it too. So Watson was typically blanketed. This year, with the additions of Randy Moss, Donte' Stallworth, and Wes Welker, Watson should find far more running room down the seam and in the end zone. And with no Daniel Graham around to steal those one-and two-yard touchdowns, Watson could see that total increase as well.

Chris Smith - Due to three key free agent acquisitions this offseason, the Patriots passing attack will have many options this season. While the receivers will see a lot of passes thrown their way, the player who may prosper the most is tight end Ben Watson who should find lots more open space in 2007.

Andy Hicks - Chris Cooley has finished as the 4th and 5th ranked Tight End in the last 2 years, yet will be taken after these positions. Sure he may not have the name recognition of others, but he will provide solid, quality production from the Tight End position. He has a knack of making yards after the catch and gets solid red zone targets as is demonstrated by 3 straight seasons with 6 or 7 touchdowns. Those who are unwilling to use a higher pick on a tight end can wait until well into the 8th round to snap up this gem. He is a safer option than some of the players who will be taken ahead of him and you won't have to pay the higher draft price. By the end of the season there'll be little difference in production between these guys, but the picks you make in the 5th to 7th rounds at other positions could win you your draft.

Mike Brown - It's difficult to be undervalued when everyone thinks you're a top-10 player at the position. But watching Vernon Davis in college and briefly in the pros, one gets the sense that it's when, not if, he'll become the #1 tight end in all of football. He's got every skill you could possibly want in a receiving tight end, and the off-season reports about the work he's doing every day with Alex Smith are very encouraging. He doesn't seem to be sitting on his laurels and collecting his money; here's a young guy who's actually going out and working to get better. What a novel concept! The overall offensive improvement of San Francisco coupled with Davis entering his season year (typically a breakout year for tight ends) and you can see big things on the 2007 horizon for Davis.

David Yudkin - Graham signed for big money after slowly being phased out of the Patriots' passing attack. Tony Scheffler's broken foot has allowed Graham to play with the first unit so far this off-season, and the Broncos brass has indicated they hop to get Graham 55 receptions this season. Clearly if that were to materialize Graham would far outrank his 21st ranking and would have been a great pickup. Shanahan's teams have put up great tight end numbers in the past, so it's not a stretch to think that Graham and Scheffler could co-exist and both could be relatively productive.

Sigmund Bloom - It only took three days for Scott Linehan and the Rams to scoop up McMichael after the Dolphins released him. McMichael has been one of the best receiving TEs in the league over the last five years, and Linehan should know -- McMichael was the TE in Miami in 2005 in Linehan's offense. He finished with 60/582/5, good enough for the #8 fantasy TE on the year. There's no reason that McMichael can't reproduce those numbers in St. Louis, in fact, he's in a much more potent passing offense. McMichael hasn't finished lower than fantasy TE11 in the last five years, and his average finish is TE8. Thank your leaguemates if they let him fall to you at his ADP of TE12.

Maurile Tremblay - Winslow led Browns and all NFL tight ends last year with 89 receptions, finishing as the sixth-best fantasy tight end only because of an anomalously low number of touchdowns per reception. There are concerns about Winslow's surgically repaired knee (he had microfracture surgery this offseason), but he expects to be healthier in 2007 than he was in 2006. Winslow has the athleticism to match that of any TE in the NFL, including Antonio Gates. Although he is not as good a blocker as gates, that doesn't matter much for fantasy purposes. Winslow is aggressive in going after the ball in the air, and can gain yards after the catch. Overall, I believe fantasy owners are currently overestimating the likelihood that Winslow's knee will significantly hold him back, and are therefore allowing him to slip lower in the draft than he should.