Fantasy Index

Factoid

Young tight ends

Sophomore tight ends are better than rookies

There are some interesting rookie tight ends; Eric Ebron, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Jace Amaro, certainly, will be selected in a lot of fantasy leagues.

But as I play around with the numbers, I get the feeling that your odds are better of hitting on a young tight end if you focus on one of last year’s rookies – Zach Ertz, Tyler Eifert, Travis Kelce or Jordan Reed.

Tight end is a position where it tends to take some time to figure out what’s going on. Even more so than at wide receiver or running backs.

Here are the top 20 rookie tight ends of this century (2000-2013). As a group, these guys averaged 40 catches, 460 yards and 4 TDs in their first season.

TOP ROOKIE TIGHT ENDS SINCE 2000
YearPlayerNoYdsTDPts
2010Rob Gronkowski4254610114.6
2002Jeremy Shockey748942101.4
2008John Carlson55627592.7
2005Heath Miller39459681.9
2010Tony Moeaki47556373.6
2008Dustin Keller48535371.5
2010Jermaine Gresham52471471.1
2013Zach Ertz36469470.9
2012Dwayne Allen45521370.1
2013Jordan Reed45499367.9
2004Chris Cooley37314667.4
2010Jimmy Graham31356565.6
2007Zach Miller44444362.4
2013Tyler Eifert39445256.5
2002Doug Jolley32409252.9
2006Tony Scheffler18286452.6
2008Martellus Bennett20283452.3
2007Greg Olsen39391251.1
2001Alge Crumpler25330351.0
2005Alex Smith41367248.7
Total(20 guys)40460468.8

And here are the top 20 second-year tight ends in the same time period. These guys, on average, averaged 19 more catches, 223 more receiving yards and 2 more touchdowns. As a group, they averaged about 50 percent more catches and 50 percent more touchdowns.

TOP SECOND-YEAR TIGHT ENDS SINCE 2000
YearPlayerNoYdsTDPts
2010Rob Gronkowski90132717234.7
2010Jimmy Graham99131011197.0
2003Jason Witten 879806134.0
2010Aaron Hernandez799107133.0
2001Todd Heap688366119.6
2004Chris Cooley717747119.4
2011Kyle Rudolph534939103.3
2008John Carlson51574799.4
2008Jermichael Finley55676597.6
2009Brandon Pettigrew71722496.2
2010Jermaine Gresham56596695.6
2007Greg Olsen54574587.4
2008Fred Davis48509686.9
2000Bubba Franks36322986.2
2006Tony Scheffler49549584.9
2012Coby Fleener52608484.8
2007Zach Miller56778183.8
2010Ed Dickson54528582.8
2004Ben Troupe55530477.0
2011Lance Kendricks42519475.9
Total(20 guys)596836104.1

As well as Ertz played late last year, I’m thinking he’ll be better than any of this year’s rookie tight ends.

—Ian Allan

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