Fantasy Football TE draft tiers: It’s Jimmy Graham and everyone else

As a tool for fantasy drafts, players can be grouped together in tiers of similar projected fantasy production.  Tiers can help a drafter decide how to choose between players at different positions; if a given player is the last one left in a higher tier, an owner may choose to select him over another player at a position with several players of comparable value left on the board.

To create our tiers, we are using Gene Wang’s top 30 TEs. Scoring figures are for standard settings and are courtesy of Fantasy Pros.

TIER 1
Jimmy Graham, New Orleans Saints

The only tight end who is a legitimate option in the first round of almost all fantasy drafts, Graham towered above all others at his position last season, and he is a very good bet to do the same this year.

TIER 2
Julius Thomas, Denver Broncos
Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers
Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots
Thomas went undrafted in most leagues last year, then slapped up a 12-touchdown season, then saw big-bodied Eric Decker depart in free agency. Davis snared 13 TDs, although he appears to have gained some competition for targets. All eyes will be on Gronkowski’s return from a torn ACL and MCL; if he looks like the dominating Gronk of old, he’ll shoot up draft boards.

TIER 3
Jordan Cameron, Cleveland Browns
Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys
Greg Olsen, Carolina Panthers
Jordan Reed, Washington Redskins
Dennis Pitta, Baltimore Ravens


(washingtonpost.com)