Greg Olsen is a top-three fantasy football tight end

The announcement Wednesday that Carolina Panthers receiver Kelvin Benjamin will miss the entire 2015 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee sent shockwaves through the entire organization.

Not to mention those that already took Benjamin in early fantasy football drafts.

Fantasy players immediately shift their thinking to how it affects the rest of Carolina’s offense. Benjamin had an impressive rookie year with 73 catches (on a whopping 146 targets) for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns.

Since that production has to go somewhere, Greg Olsen is now a top-three fantasy tight end — and worth taking after Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham come off the board.

Olsen has been targeted 100-plus times in three of Cam Newton’s four seasons, including a career-high 122 times last year. Olsen has scored at least five TDs in all but one of his eight seasons.

Just imagine how much Newton will rely on Olsen with Benjamin out, especially since the rest of the Panthers’ aerial weapons are shaky, at best. Behind rookie Devin Funchess, Newton’s options are Corey Brown, Ted Ginn Jr. and Jerricho Cotchery.

In point-per-reception formats especially, Olsen should be a beast, and he’s currently going in the fifth round of standard 12-team PPR leagues, per FantasyFootballCalculator.com.

It makes much more sense to snag Olsen, Travis Kelce (5.04 average draft position) or Jordan Cameron (7.09) in the middle rounds than to overpay for Gronkowski or Graham and leave little margin for error at the other skill positions.

Heck, there are other great value picks at tight end even later: Tyler Eifert (10.02), Zach Ertz (10.05), Kyle Rudolph (11.08). The tight end talent pool is deep in 2015. Wait for the value to come to you.


(usatoday.com)