TE Tiered Fantasy Football Rankings: 2011 Draft Kit

With camps started and most additions and subtractions already done, it was time to get my first set of rankings out there. I already have my QB Tiers – RB Tiers and WR Tiers finished, with just Ds hoping to get finished by Tuesday.

If you don’t know about tiered rankings, read this, it might help – “How To Use Tiered Rankings“

It used to be a nothing position, right in line with kickers, but it’s deeper than ever before – Tight Ends!

TE Tier I

Antonio Gates
Dallas Clark
Jermichael Finley

Tier II

Vernon Davis
Jason Witten

Tier III

Zach Miller
Owen Daniels
Chris Cooley

Tier IV

Brandon Petitgrew
Tony Gonzalez
Mercedes Lewis
Jimmy Graham
Jermaine Gresham
Kellen Winslow
Dustin Keller
Rob Gronkowski

Tier V

Brent Celek
Vinsanthe Shiancoe
John Carlson
Heath Miller
Jared Cook
Greg Olson
Toni Moeaki
Kevin Boss
Aaron Hernandez
Lance Kendricks
Ed Dixon
Todd Heap
Ben Watson
Anthony Fasano

Not as many tiers in the field of TEs, but that’s because you should almost never own more than 1 – since there’s 32 starters, that leaves a bunch of guys that could play in case of injury. We’d love to have a guy from the first 3 tiers of TEs because even at the bottom of that group, the potential upside is high. It all starts with Antonio Gates, and we were 1 foot injury away from putting him in a tier all by himself. Because Clark and Finley are so talented, and have such huge roles in their respective passing attacks, they deserve to be here with Gates. Not one of these guys was healthy in 2010, but we have big dreams in ’11.

Vernon Davis and Witten sit by themselves in Tier 2 and that’s because they just haven’t been good enough to get into Tier 1, but they are both talented enough to be the top TE in the league. I have a feeling Witten is going to have a big year, but there’s a lot of talent out wide in Dallas, and the running game should be better this season. Davis still has Alex Smith throwing him the ball, but as the team’s #1 receiver, he’ll get the looks.

Zach Miller still doesn’t have a team, but if he can be good in Oakland, he can be good anywhere. Ideally he’ll go to a place where he’s a Top 2 target – if so, he’ll be great, even as the 3rd guy, he’ll impress – but if he’s the #1 guy again, he doesn’t have Top 2 tier upside. Owen Daniels had what was close to a lost year, he just didn’t get up to speed until late. The “until late” part of that has us excited, because he was impressive down the stretch, and that’s the guy we always thought was the 2nd best WR in Houston. Chris Cooley is the best ball catcher in Washington, and we expect Beck to use him early and often. Fewer drops in 2011 will go a long way for Cooley’s fantasy stock.

These are the last group of guys we’d feel comfortable starting – but they are a step down from the first three tiers. Petitgrew has great PPR upside with all the balls he gets. Not a big play threat, but consistency from the TE is nice. Gonzalez is old, but still good – we’re unsure how many looks he’ll get with White and now Julio Jones on the other side. Lewis had a great year, but we are always scared about Jacksonville’s passing offense. Graham and Gresham should be much better in 2011, they are both very talented. Winslow still has the talent to be a starter at TE, but he got lost a couple times last season – Keller and Gronkowski both have TD upside for good teams.

Tier 5 has some guys that have been good players – Celek, Shiancoe, Carlson, Miller, Olson, Heap, Watson and Boss – they’ve all been Top 10 TEs at some point over the last 5 seasons – but looking at the way it stacks up, we’re just not sure about these guys.