2017 Fantasy Football Rankings: Tight Ends (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR)

2017 Rankings: Top 200 (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR) | QB | RB (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR) | WR (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR) | TE (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR) | K | DST

IDP Rankings: Top 100 | DL | LB | DB

Dynasty Rankings: Top 200 | QB | RB | WR | TE | Top-50 Rookies

Even though I’m not one to pat myself on the back (actually, I am), Razzball has been on an upward curve, bringing some sort of conglomerate synergistic metamorphosis (as they say in the corporate world), providing you an ever-improving ranking accuracy year after year. How do we do it? No clue. It could be dark wizardry. It could be indigestion. It could even be your mother. But I have to admit, this year is going to be daunting, if only because the expectations we’ve placed on ourselves here at Razzball Football are at an all time high (just like my college years). Going from 31st overall to 22nd in Weekly Fantasy Football accuracy is one thing. But going from 22nd to the top-10 in the entire nation last season is quite another. And then on top of that, to finish third overall in our Draft Rankings last year… well, it’d be folly to try and say “Yes, we’re going to try even more, (more better if you believe in remedial English)”, but yeah, I’m going to say it… We’re going to do more better. (My English teacher just placed a bounty on me.) With that said, and my parentheses key broken, here are your 2017 Fantasy Football Tight End (Standard, Half-PPR, PPR) Rankings…

 
 
Finally, we’re getting to the meat and potatoes of the fantasy rankings, perfect for the protein-starch diet which has netted me zero results. While last few days has brought you our Kicker and DST rankings, what I commonly refer to as a “rankings extravaganza”, today we start getting serious. But not too serious, because we are talking about tight ends, more specifically, our tight ends, which probably needs less pants. Why? Because everything needs less pants. Think about it.

As a more general question to answer, no, I don’t think you should be drafting tight ends early in your draft. And if that wasn’t your question, well then, tough luck I guess. And that’s not to say I’m completely opposed to drafting Gronk in the first round, it’s just difficult to stomach, not only because he’s so damn charming, but the dearth (dearthness?) of the position almost demands you to go either running back or wide receiver early on. There are just so many options at the position that offer value during the draft or to stream, you could punt the entire category… in fact, based on what we’ve covered so far, you could punt the TE, K, and DST positions and have a pretty amazing team. And speaking of Gronk…

This is Gronks’ world, we’re just living in it. So yeah, while it’s always hard (teehee) for me to have any kind of positive things to say about the Patriots, Rob Gronkowski remains one of the few things I enjoy not just about New England, but the NFL as a whole. Now, I’d be remiss not to mention that this always wasn’t the case… let’s be fair, I liked the player, but certainly did my fair share of poo-pooing (unfortunately, not the appetizer nomenclature) him a few seasons back in terms of fantasy football. He was having a difficult time staying healthy and there were legitimately better options out there, but I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached a peak-Gronk timeline, which, much to my chagrin, means we’ve also reached a time when the Patriots just won’t lose. Ugh, what a world we live in.

Zach Ertz represents an interesting case study in a player who’s potential is intriguing, but seems to have capped out for one reason or another after several years. (I’d say C.J. Spiller is the poster child for this phenomena, and a strong advocate of St. Jude). Here’s what I said about Ertz just two short (she never says that) years ago:

A lot of people are jumping on the Zach Ertz bandwagon this season (DON’T ERTZ YOURSELF HAR HAR), and while I’m sort of okay with it, I’m still a bit hesitant to join them. All of his numbers improved across the board from 2013 to 2014, but besides a 15 reception game against Washington, he only had over four receptions once, and had nine games with three receptions or less. I like Chip Kelly’s innovative™ offense, but there’s only so much volume there, and I don’t think it’s enough to push Ertz to the top.

Honestly, yes, I still like him, but there’s just something holding me back from ranking him higher this season. Don’t hold me back bro! The value is still there, even more so with other TE’s overtaking him this preseason, and the Eagles offense still would seem to favor the type of tight end that he is… so I guess what I’m trying to say is this: if Tyler Eifert and Kyle Rudolph are off the board, I wouldn’t mind taking another chance on Ertz. Plus, the punny team names you can come up with his last name makes the whole endeavor pretty much worthwhile in itself. (I wish I could still make the same argument for Isaiah Pead. Sad face.)

And I say true, the Antonio Gates love-fest with me will never end, but this is the first year where it’ll be “subdued” a bit (say it ain’t so!). I think at this point, he’ll be a part-time guy with some great red zone looks (Philip Rivers still holds him in high regard I’ve heard), so while you could do better, you could also do a lot worse. I’m looking at you Dwayne Allen. I’M LOOKING AT YOU. If you’re sitting on this position during the draft, which you should be doing anyways in a lot of leagues, I’m comfortable picking him up towards the end, or at the very least, keeping an eye on him as a streaming or injury fill-in option.