Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Off-Season Hansen's Hints: Tight Ends

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

John Hansen (@Fantasy_Guru) goes solo in the newest podcast mini-series: Hansen's Hints. Here, John looks at the initial 2022 TE Projections. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is bedtime a nightmare? If you fear the chance of accidental leakage and skin irritation, you need to try tennis sensitive care overnight pads. Its skin comfort formula acts as a barrier to help protect your skin. Try them now and have a smooth night. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast, brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top-level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal.

to help you score more fantasy points. What's up, people? Welcome to another edition of Hansen's Hents here at FantasyPoint.com and the FantasyPoints.com podcast feed, if you will. I am John Hanson, the Hansen giving out the hints here, and just getting started here in 2022 with all our preseason preparation and all that. Really big step is getting season projections done, which I did get done.

this past week recording this on Sunday, May 8th. And if you missed the previous ones, the previous additions, did a podcast on the quarterbacks, the running backs, and the wide receivers. The quarterback one was kind of a little bit more introductory, and I kind of went through my process in terms of adding up all the numbers and making sure it all lines up. And the good news is everything did line up pretty darn well here this year. I don't think I've ever spent more time on preseason projections than this year.

And certainly a lot of players in the mix and a lot of positional battles and depth charts, spots that we don't really know about. But check out the quarterbacks and the running backs and the wide receivers. I'm kind of just given a lay of the land here with these four positional podcasts as I wrapped up the season projections. but I'm also throwing in there, some early looks at, you know, players that I like in particular, especially compared to the ADP. And that's always our deal here, trying to spot out the mispriced players, basically, looking at the ADP and using good ADP, by the way, from the NFFC, and, again, trying to isolate the players who are mispriced,

whether they're not, you know, costly enough. They should be more pricey, higher up the ATS. ADP board or the opposite. This past year, some really good calls. Not a ton, I don't think, at tight end, actually. We did have Gronk at 154. No, we had it at 142 as ADP was 154. It didn't really take note.

Oh, Mandrews, we were definitely higher on Mark Andrews than the markets last year. Can't recall anyone, probably Friar Muth as well. but anyway, let's get into this year's landscape at the tight end position. And we have been struggling at this position for a long-ass time. We all know this. And over the last few years, it seems like we kind of get sucked into looking at the names. You're like, oh, wow, you know what? This year is going to be pretty good at tight end.

And it never really is. It's always the same crap. But we do have good quantity here. No question about it. Let's go through the tiers, if you will. And, well, the top two dudes, and it's close right now between Travis Kelsey and Mark Andrews, aka Mandrews. I think I'd go Mandruz, personally.

He's younger and certainly a huge role. But we have them separated by only 1.5 fantasy points, and they are only separated by two draft slots in terms of the ADP. It is Kelsey coming in, ADP-wise. is the top Mark Andrews at 18 and then Andrews at 20. That's a tier and tier because no one else is hanging with those two guys. Next tier is sketchy. Honestly, it's Kyle Pitts, George Kittle. And that's it.

That's another tier. Certainly Kyle Pitts is very talented as he showed last year over 1,000 yards. And he's going to have upside for sure. but he's also really pricey this year with an ADP around 36, 37 right there, third, fourth round. That is costly. George Kittle is a little cheaper, actually, with an 80P around 45, but, you know, I mean, he drives you nuts, George Kittle. But he did have a better year last year.

So certainly not a terrible option, especially now that he's a little bit down the board. I think people have wised up a little bit on Kittle with his injury issues and all that the next tier is probably the tier where I'm going to focus and look for my starter. Basically, it's tier three. And in our rankings, we have Dalton Schultz at tight end five, 80 PS7. Darren Waller is tied in six in this tier. But the appealing guys are the next three guys in our rankings. and by the tier also.

And it looks like it's pretty close to the EDP too. T.J. Hawkinson, we've got them at tight end seven, actually. You know what? That seems like I'm not that big of a Dalton Schultz guy. I mean, I do like Jake Ferguson, by the way. So I may tweak that here like real time. I don't love that, actually. But yeah, let me move Hawkinson up.

I mean, we love Hawkinson. I've always been like totally enamored. It's been frustrating, but he's a nice one in this tier three group around 75 picks into the draft. We also have Dawson Knox. He's cheaper. He's about 30 picks off the board after Hawkinson, yet we have him really close in our rankings. And this is all about touchdowns. You know, he did score a bunch of them last year, double digits.

I know for a fact that he and Josh Allen are best friends on the team, and you can see that chemistry last year. So I really like Dawson Knox, especially with the receiving corps shaking up just a little bit here. I think they will maybe even target him, like design a few more plays for him as he continues to evolve. Last year, similar to Dalton Schultz, I felt he was doing a lot of damage as a checkdown guy,

which is fine, but you'd rather see, you know, the team design plays for the guy. Pat Friermouth is the other one. So those are my three choice guys. Hawkinson, Dawson Knox, and Fryermuth. Hawkinson's the most expensive of the three, obviously, at 70, knocks at like 110, Fryeemuth right around there. But those dudes are in this tier three,

along with the aforementioned Schultz and Waller, moving down to tier four. It's a little sketchier. There's a reason these guys are down the board just a little bit. Dallas Goddert certainly could do well, but he's also struggled with the drops. And now you have AJ Brown there. He's going to command plenty of targets. Zacharts, I do like, even though he's old.

And I don't like that. And we know that they drafted Trey McBride and he'll be a factor. I think this might actually be transitioning into more of a tight end centric offense, as it did last year, by the way. especially with DeAndre Hopkins out for the first six games. Rob Grunkowski's like tentatively slated here at Tide N12, ADP of Tide N13. I think that's about right.

Let's just assume Grunk plays. Tight end 12 is about right. The next guy in the list is Tidin 13, and I am very high on as a breakout candidate. Why wouldn't it be Irv Smith for Minnesota that lost Tyler Coughlin. if, you know, he's healthy this summer. Look, he's got a really, real chance, I think, but even by season's end,

emerges the second option in the passing game over Thielen, because I'm worried about Thielen breaking down now. He is up there. He's well into his 30s now, and the injury bug might be present for the rest of his career. We do still have some decent options, though, and there's tier five. These would be like upside starters,

even though Cole Commet, it's hard to use upside in a sentence with Cole Commet, but I did see some chemistry there with Justin Fields. I do have him for 66 catches. That's nothing to sneeze at. I think you're also looking at Robert Tonion as a potential value here. We all know what he did a couple of years ago, and they need him.

Look, Aaron Rogers trusts him probably more than any other receiver on the team right now, including Alan Lazard. I'm down and no one disagree with me, by the way, on Mike Kosicki's annoying. Flash Gaseki. Flashes, and then he goes away for like five weeks. They brought in, obviously, Tyreek. They're going to be wide receiver centric,

and he's just like one of five active targets to a Tungavello. We do have, you know, pretty good depth this year, you know, tier six. Guys like Logan Thomas, you know, injury concerns, obviously. Albert Oku-Abonan in Denver, not bad. Gerald Everett, not bad for the Chargers. Hunter Henry, I love, but didn't give him love last year, unfortunately, but it's hard to ignore the presence of Johnny Smith. And he's, you know, didn't catch, what do you catch, 39 balls last year?

Noah fan. I kind of like Austin Hooper. So we are into the upper 20s here at the tight end position. And it's not bad. It's a little bit better than usual, I think. You do have some breakout types. Harrison Bryant for the Cleveland Brown. maybe Brevin Jordan or the Houston Texans.

Probably a lot to ask of Jolani Woods, the rookie for the Indianapolis Colts. But there's a quick snapshot at the tight end position. Let me quickly, as I've been doing here, just do a quick roundup of the discrepancies, if you will. That's usually what we're after. We're looking to get those discrepancies and to take advantage of them. T.J. Hawkinson just moved them, actually,

to tight end six we have met six so that's right at the marketplace that's what he is on the board tight end six i would say d'ausen knox is a discrepancy he's tied in 11 we have them at tight end eight friar muth not much of a discrepancy here is tied in 10 we've got him at nine down the board irv smith would be a small discrepancy we are kind of chalky i guess uh when you look at the a dp compared to our rankings but you know there are fewer top tier tight end. So I think everyone's going to be on the same page with these guys. But Irv Smith, tight end 15 per the ADP. We have them at 13. And moving down, here's a decent one. Robert Tunyon is tied in 24. By the way, that'll be going up. Markets will correct this.

We have them at tight end 16. Gerald Everett is a decent discrepancy here. Tight end 23. We have them at tight end 19. By the way, I'm not really feeling. feeling Noah Fant moving on to Seattle with their horrible quarterback situation. He's tight end 17 and we only have him at tight end 22. Austin Hooper, nothing sexy about it, but tight end 25 off the board. We've got them at tight end 23. I don't really buy it with David Injoku here, tight end 19 off the board. Nah.

Harrison Bryant's good. They don't know how to use them. Nobody does, apparently. they want to keep him around just because they're afraid of losing out on the upside. But it's like four or five years into the career now. I'm not exactly seeing that. We'll see if he clicks with Deshawn Watson. Believe it or not, we have Evan Ingram a little higher.

No, no, okay, good. I was going to say, no, we have him lower than 80P. Good. He's tied in 20. No, we're not going to have him that high. He's at tight end 27. Here would be a good discrepancy, but we'll see what the position battle has. store and all that. Harrison Bryant's for the Cleveland Browns. He is tied in 44 off the board.

We have him at 28. Tyler Conklin is technically a discrepancy too, but we've kind of gotten word that they're kind of enamored with Tyler Conklin. He's going to be like their move guy. And CJ Usamo, unfortunately, would be like their in-line guy. We'll see about some other situations like in New Orleans, like I don't know what to do with Taysom Hill as it relates to Adam Troutman. I think Troutman is a pretty decent prospect. But if Hill's going to be in the mix, you know, he didn't have a great margin for error. And we'll see about a guy like Daniel Bellinger as well, who could be the tight end one for the New York Giants. And we'll see about Ricky Seals Jones in that situation, too.

We'll also see in Jacksonville about Dan Arnold. We do have some things to check into here. What is Greg Dulcich's role? For example, in Denver, that could hurt Albert O. is Trey McBride going to be a big factor in Arizona that could hurt certainly Zach Ertz so also those Baltimore guys man the Ravens taking Charlie Charlie Kohler and Isaiah likely is it's kind of a bus kill but Kohler man he's going to be intriguing not that we're going to be ranking real high he's only tied in 50 but good some good names to keep an eye on here for the

waiver wire and alike like Jake Ferguson by the way from Dallas great kid in a fantasy, Barry Alvarez's grandson. How about that? I did not even know that. Obviously, he went to Wisconsin. So the Tidane group this year, oh, Kate Otten, by the way, in Tampa, it will be intriguing. I would say it's a little bit better than usual. I would say, even though this wasn't a great tight end class in the draft, there are some intriguing guys here. It was a deeper class. So plenty of names to consider and keep track of this summer. But I, will be doing kind of what I normally do personally, which is avoid paying a premium for a top tight end, although I may take managers if he's the BPA, but target a second or third tier guy

in kind of the early to middle rounds that I think has a chance to be a stud. Hawkinson, Knox, Fryer, Meath. Those would be the top guys with Irv Smith, Cole Komet and Robert Tunyon as well. Gerald Everett is another guy I'm pretty darn high on the low end Brevin Jordan. I think this is essentially the Cliff Notes version of the whole tight end plan here, the whole tight end deal. So that's a wrap on this little mini series of a new podcast mini series, I guess, within the fantasy points feed a look at the tight ends. Deeper than usual, but still a lack of high end quality. that'll wrap it up.

So next podcast that I do here, I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'm going to continue to do at least one a week here going forward to the rest of 2022. Tell you what, maybe this week I'll do one. I'll get Mr. Kaplan to join us and we'll do like around the league little insider notes here on the Fantasy Points podcast feed.

That is a wrap. I'm John Hansen. We'll talk to you next. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoints.com.