Players being healthy is always better than the alternative, but best be careful about getting too excited about players who are healthy at the beginning of camp. So the fact that Jordan Reed is doing great after not taking any hits since Week 8 of last season is nice, but not necessarily reason to think he'll still be healthy in Week 8 this year.
Reed had surgery on both feet in the offseason, having the sesamoid bone removed. "I had pain all season, all offseason, and that pain was shutting down certain parts of the body that I needed," says Reed. "So you remove the pain and now I'm building my body back up and feeling great again."
Reed has missed 14 games the last two seasons; multiple games in all five years of his career. If you're going to draft him, you need to make sure you have a viable alternative for when he inevitably misses time. But when he has been on the field, not many tight ends have been more productive. Over the last three seasons, he's one of just nine tight ends to average over 7 fantasy points per game (1 point for every 10 yards, 6 for touchdowns).
| TIGHT END FF POINTS PER GAME, 2015-2017 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | St | No | Yds | TD | FPG |
| Rob Gronkowski | 35 | 4.7 | 79.7 | .64 | 11.8 |
| Tyler Eifert | 22 | 3.8 | 47.5 | .82 | 9.7 |
| Travis Kelce | 47 | 5.1 | 64.5 | .38 | 8.8 |
| Delanie Walker | 46 | 5.1 | 59.6 | .38 | 8.2 |
| Zach Ertz | 42 | 5.4 | 58.8 | .33 | 7.9 |
| Greg Olsen | 39 | 4.5 | 60.7 | .29 | 7.8 |
| Jimmy Graham | 42 | 4.0 | 48.5 | .44 | 7.5 |
| Gary Barnidge | 32 | 4.2 | 51.7 | .35 | 7.3 |
| Jordan Reed | 42 | 4.3 | 44.0 | .45 | 7.1 |
| Cameron Brate | 34 | 3.3 | 39.8 | .47 | 6.8 |
| Kyle Rudolph | 48 | 3.9 | 38.9 | .42 | 6.4 |
| Hunter Henry | 29 | 2.8 | 36.4 | .41 | 6.1 |
| Zach Miller | 24 | 3.4 | 38.5 | .38 | 6.1 |
| Benjamin Watson | 32 | 4.2 | 42.1 | .31 | 6.1 |
| Jack Doyle | 31 | 4.5 | 41.1 | .29 | 5.9 |
| Antonio Gates | 41 | 3.4 | 36.4 | .37 | 5.8 |
| Eric Ebron | 43 | 3.7 | 42.4 | .26 | 5.8 |
| Martellus Bennett | 36 | 3.8 | 39.9 | .28 | 5.7 |
| Austin Seferian-Jenkins | 22 | 3.4 | 33.6 | .36 | 5.5 |
| Jason Witten | 48 | 4.4 | 40.5 | .23 | 5.4 |
| Charles Clay | 41 | 3.8 | 40.0 | .22 | 5.3 |
| Julius Thomas | 35 | 3.3 | 32.1 | .34 | 5.3 |
| Coby Fleener | 36 | 3.2 | 34.8 | .26 | 5.0 |
| Vernon Davis | 30 | 3.2 | 41.1 | .13 | 4.9 |
| Jacob Tamme | 23 | 3.5 | 37.7 | .17 | 4.8 |
| Vance McDonald | 29 | 2.1 | 29.7 | .28 | 4.6 |
| Richard Rodgers | 33 | 2.8 | 26.3 | .31 | 4.5 |
| Will Tye | 24 | 3.4 | 32.6 | .17 | 4.3 |
| Jared Cook | 42 | 2.9 | 36.8 | .08 | 4.2 |
| Austin Hooper | 22 | 2.6 | 27.4 | .23 | 4.1 |
| Clive Walford | 27 | 2.2 | 25.3 | .22 | 3.9 |
| C.J. Fiedorowicz | 28 | 2.8 | 27.7 | .18 | 3.8 |
| Ryan Griffin | 32 | 2.6 | 26.6 | .17 | 3.7 |
| Garrett Celek | 43 | 1.6 | 20.3 | .23 | 3.4 |
| Jesse James | 33 | 2.6 | 22.4 | .18 | 3.3 |
| Dwayne Allen | 29 | 1.8 | 17.8 | .25 | 3.3 |
| Marcedes Lewis | 30 | 1.6 | 17.6 | .21 | 3.0 |
| Darren Fells | 30 | 1.3 | 16.3 | .20 | 2.8 |
| Dion Sims | 26 | 1.5 | 16.0 | .19 | 2.8 |
| Jermaine Gresham | 45 | 2.0 | 20.8 | .11 | 2.7 |
| Lance Kendricks | 40 | 2.2 | 21.3 | .10 | 2.7 |
| Brent Celek | 32 | 1.3 | 17.3 | .09 | 2.3 |
| Mychal Rivera | 29 | 1.7 | 16.3 | .07 | 2.0 |
| Levine Toilolo | 31 | .8 | 12.5 | .13 | 2.0 |
| Virgil Green | 28 | 1.3 | 15.3 | .07 | 2.0 |
| Josh Hill | 25 | 1.2 | 11.0 | .08 | 1.6 |
| Lee Smith | 35 | .7 | 5.0 | .03 | .7 |
Table shows all tight ends with at least 20 starts over the last three years. Three of the guys who come in ahead of Reed played even fewer games last season than he did.
No doubt some fantasy teams will pass on Reed, considering him not worth the risk. If you can land another top option with slightly less injury risk (nearly all of these guys have some), it makes sense. But if Reed's belief that his foot problems, at least, are behind him, perhaps a big year is coming. Would certainly be a plus for Alex Smith.
--Andy Richardson