Tight End Rankings: Week Fifteen

It’s the fantasy playoffs! Are you kidding me? And if you’re alive and fighting for the championship, or putting up a championship effort for the love of the game, honor or a smaller bag of jelly beans, you need every point that you can get. This weekend will prove to be difficult due to the fact that only three of the top ten tight ends have a favorable matchup (against defenses in the bottom ten). Good luck this weekend, here’s who I think will help send your team on to the championship.

1. Rob Gronkowski, NE at DEN
Rob Gronkowski is the best fantasy receiver in the NFL. He’s not just the best tight end, but he’s also scored more points than any wide receiver in the league. This poses a tough question, “Where do you draft Gronkowski next season?” Let’s dig deeper. If you take away all 15 of Gronkowski’s touchdowns this season and base his fantasy performance on his 1,088 receiving yards alone, he would be the third ranked tight end behind only Jimmy Graham and Tony Gonzalez. He’s matchup proof at this point, so there’s not much more to say. How about six straight games with a score and six multi-touchdown games this season? That’s something to say. Denver has been pretty good against the tight end this year, they have not allowed an opposing tight end to top 58 yards and they’ve only allowed five scores to the position. They haven’t faced the Patriots though and Tim Tebow doesn’t play defense. Or does he?

2. Tony Gonzalez, ATL vs. JAX
Fun fact: Tony Gonzalez, who is often referred to as “Gonzo” was born in 1976. Coincidentally, a Muppet named Snarl the Frackle was recreated as the Great Gonzo on the Muppet Show in the same year. Both of these Bicentennial wonders have experienced career resurgence this fall, but Gonzalez’s may be more impressive because he’s not a blue sock with button eyes. Since Atlanta’s Week 8 bye, Gonzalez has scored or topped 69 yards in every game, making him one of the most consistent targets in fantasy this season. His opponent on Thursday night is the Jacksonville Jaguars, who started the year off as one of the most hospitable opponents to tight ends, as they allowed a tight end score in four of the first five games. Since then the Jags have clamped down and only allowed one tight end score since Week 6.

3. Jimmy Graham, NO at MIN
White Goodman was a character made popular by Ben Stiller in the classic sports film, “Dodgeball.” During the movie, Goodman exhibits what he calls “involuntary spasms” during an intense workout and requests that those around him “enjoy the show.” Jimmy Graham had a few involuntary back spasms only minutes before last week’s game against the Titans, which limited his plays and production to a meager five catches for 55 yards. It was anything but an enjoyable show for fantasy owners. Considering that in his most injured state of the season, Graham managed to produce average numbers, I have no problem starting him this weekend against the Nordic nightmare known as the Vikings secondary. Minnesota has fared pretty well against the tight end this season, but since Graham is as much a receiver as a tight end it’s important to note that the Vikings have allowed over 201 receiving yards per game and 11 touchdowns to the combination of wideouts and tight ends in the last five weeks. Thank you Chuck Norris!

4. Jermichael Finley, GB at KC
Zero… point… zero. That’s what Jermichael Finley owners were treated to last weekend. If you’re still alive in the playoff chase, kudos to your management skills, because a goose egg at any position in the fantasy playoffs is tough to overcome. So why do we have Finley ranked so high this week? First, Greg Jennings will miss the next couple of weeks with a knee injury. Some fantasy pundits feel that Donald Driver or James Jones will take most of those targets, but why not Finley? Jordy Nelson will be matched up with Kansas City’s shutdown cornerback Brandon Flowers, leaving Finley as a serious mismatch in the middle of the field. Let’s not forget that the Chiefs have allowed three tight ends this season to have two touchdown games (Chandler, Gronkowski and Fasano), so I’d put a few of my own hard-earned jellybeans that Finley will find paydirt at Arrowhead this weekend.

5. Antonio Gates, SD vs. BAL
We’re so accustomed to seeing Antonio Gates at the top of the rankings, that it almost feels like he’s the forgotten man this season. It’s easy to forget about a guy after he missed four games with an injury, but since his Week 7 return to the lineup he’s averaging 66 yards per game and has had six touchdowns in eight games. That’s pretty good production from the tight end position. He faces a Ravens team that didn’t allow a tight end score in their first 11 games this season, but have allowed one in each of the last two games. In fact, if you don’t count Heath Miller’s 73-yard effort in Week 9, no tight end has topped 48 yards against the Ravens this year. It’s a tough matchup for Gates, but he’s too talented to leave out of the

lineup.

6. Jason Witten, DAL at TB
It seems that Laurent Robinson is ruining everything in Dallas. Since Robinson started his incredible tear in Week 8, Jason Witten has seen his numbers significantly decrease. His averages in those seven games are four catches for only 46 yards, with only two touchdowns over that span. Compare that to his six catches for 76 yards average from the first six games and it’s pretty plain to see that Robinson has driven a wedge between Witten and his B.F.F. Tony Romo. Let’s hope that Romo finds Witten a few times this week against the Buccaneers. Tampa is pretty middle of the pack against the tight end this season, but they did allow Marcedes Lewis to shake free for a 62-yard grab just last week. Maybe with all of the confusion due to the three Cowboys wide receivers and Felix Jones back at the starting tailback, that Witten will have a chance to make have a statement game.

7. Jake Ballard, NYG vs. WAS
Jake Ballard is the Heath Miller of 2011. He’s available on the waiver wire most of the time, gets picked up and dropped by multiple teams in your league and surprises you with a nice game every once in a while. Last week Ballard found the end zone against the Cowboys and he looks to keep his scoring streak going this week against the Redskins. It’s not really fair, but fun to mention that Washington gave up 244 yards and two touchdowns to tight ends last week (Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez). That’s not the first time they’ve been easy on the tight end, in fact, the Redskins have allowed 60 yards or more to tight ends five times this season. Ballard almost accomplished that feat in Week 1 when he had two catches for 59 yards.

8. Brandon Pettigrew, DET at OAK
Like most NFL players, Brandon Pettigrew wishes he could face the Vikings defense every week. His two best games of the season have come against Minnesota, including last week’s 57 yards and a score. Pettigrew has scored in four games this season and had more than 60 yards in only two games, but he’s never done both in the same week. It’s interesting that his opponent this week, the Oakland Raiders, have a similar track record against opposing tight ends. This year the Raiders have allowed six tight ends to score, but only one of those players had more than 25 yards in the game in which they scored. So it’s either a yardage thing or a scoring thing, and it seems like Pettigrew has a good chance to do either this week.

9. Anthony Fasano, MIA at BUF
It looks as if the mafia that was Anthony Fasano and Tony Sporano has been broken up for the time being. Instead of sleeping with the fishes, we hope that Fasano is scoring for the fishes this week in Buffalo. Fasano has been quite a bit more involved in the Miami offense since Matt Moore took the helm at quarterback. In his last eight games Fasano has topped 55 yards or scored in six contests, which is pretty solid out of the tight end position. The bison-like creatures that he will face this weekend have given up the most tight end touchdowns in the NFL this season with nine, and they haven’t faced the Patriots for the second time yet. The Bills have allowed six tight end scores in the last four weeks, including two scores each for both Antonio Gates and Dustin Keller.

10. Kellen Winslow, TB vs. DAL
Having Kellen Winslow on your fantasy squad is a lot like waiting by the window for party guests to arrive for your seventh birthday. Anticipation of awesomeness, excitement looming and endless waiting for anything cool to happen. Winslow’s career has been pretty much that in a nutshell. He had done next to nothing for the first month and a half and then he busts out for touchdowns in two straight games followed by a nine-catch, 132-yard effort against the Packers. He started finding himself on fantasy rosters only to total 131 yards in his next three games. That’s an emphatic yawn! Why should we believe in him this Saturday? He faces a Dallas squad that has allowed the second most yards to tight ends this season (about 66 yards per game) and the third most receptions to tight ends (72). So he should get his chances this week and that’s all we can ask for.

Take a chance on…

Brent Celek, PHI vs. NYJ
Celek hasn’t done much in the past couple of weeks, but it seemed that he was in the process of developing some good chemistry with Michael Vick before Vick went down with his rib injury. Now that Vick has returned and he faces a Jets defense that has allowed the sixth most yards to tight ends this season, we should see a bit of an uptick in Celek’s numbers.

Visanthe Shiancoe, MIN vs. NO
Shank has had ten catches and a score in the last three weeks. This may not seem like much, but the Vikings don’t have a lot of passing options besides Shiancoe and Percy Harvin. The Saints can be thrown on, and good pass catching tight ends have had good days this year against them. The players who’ve scored against the Saints are of that ilk, Tony Gonzalez, Kellen Winslow, Greg Olsen, Owen Daniels