For the unfortunate few that did not have the pleasure of experiencing Tom Vu in the late 80’s, you truly missed out. His infomercials were the best thing on late night television, which prompted In Living Color, Saturday Night Live, and Family Guy to all pay homage to him. Put all the clowning to the side, though, because we as fantasy football degenerates should emulate the great Mr. Vu. Look past the terrible accent, the allegations of securities fraud and false advertising, the beautiful women, and the fancy cars. What do we have? The OG of VBD (Value Based Drafting). Okay, David Dodds and Joe Bryant over at Footballguys.com created VBD for fantasy football, but Tom Vu was VBDing in real life before fantasy football was cool. Look past all the sizzle and you will see that, at the core, he was all about finding value. Scooping up distressed properties (foreclosures, bankruptcies, divorces, tax liens) and milking a profit from them. Sound familiar?
Come to my seminar and I will show you the best value in the fantasy football market today!!!
Virgil Green. Is it any coincidence that the color of money is green? I think not.
[graphiq id=”2iGCUmkf1Bz” title=”Virgil Green Overview” width=”640″ height=”653″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/2iGCUmkf1Bz” link=”http://football-players.pointafter.com/l/7859/Virgil-Green” link_text=”Virgil Green Overview | PointAfter”]
Green is 6’3″ 249 lbs and runs a 4.64 40-yard dash and 6.90 3-cone drill. Coming out of college, he was viewed as an “undersized, athletic, pass-catching tight end…who doesn’t bring much to the table as a blocker.” That’s interesting because, since being drafted by the Broncos in 2011, he’s been relegated to the run-blocking tight end role and performed quite well. The Broncos did have Julius Thomas manning the pass-catching role, so there’s no shame in being #2. When Thomas moved on to greener pastures, Green was not able to move up the depth chart because new head coach Gary Kubiak brought his blankie (Owen Daniels) with him to Denver.
Now, kids…gather around the campfire. Since Kubiak received his first head coaching gig in 2006, Daniels has been his tight end every year. Cue the T.O. Below is a chart that shows the number of targets that Daniels received each year. He was often injured, so I will also show the total targets to the tight end position each year.
| Year | Team | Games played | Targets to Daniels | Total targets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | HOU | 14 | 50 | 83 |
| 2007 | HOU | 16 | 94 | 110 |
| 2008 | HOU | 16 | 101 | 118 |
| 2009 | HOU | 8 | 57 | 109 |
| 2010 | HOU | 11 | 67 | 137 |
| 2011 | HOU | 15 | 84 | 126 |
| 2012 | HOU | 15 | 103 | 188 |
| 2013 | HOU | 5 | 40 | 158 |
| 2014 | BAL | 15 | 79 | 115 |
| 2015 | DEN | 16 | 77 | 120 |
It’s evident that Kubiak loves throwing to the tight end. In addition, his blankie has dominated the targets when healthy. You know what? Daniels is no longer on the Broncos, which will mark the first time in 10 years that Kubiak is without him. You know how hard it is to go cold turkey without your blankie? I don’t know which was harder: saying goodbye to my blankie or quitting smoking.
You don’t make that move unless you feel pretty comfortable with what you have. Green is the #1 tight end in Denver right now. If you need confirmation, it was Green that caught three passes for 26 yards during the first preseason game against the Chicago Bears. It was Green that was playing with the starting unit. Yes, the Broncos drafted Jeff Heuerman and are very high on him, but Green is experienced and has proven to be adept at blocking. Unless Green gets hurt, Heuerman is going to be second on the depth chart.
I really don’t understand the lack of respect for Green. Is it that Daniels never hauled in more than six touchdowns in a season? That’s a possibility, but in the seasons that Daniels played at least 15 games, he finished as a top 10 tight end in three of those six years. Currently, Green’s ADP is #36 TE in MFL’s. Matt Waldman of Footballguys.com is also high on Green and has spoken positively about him recently. Yet, the needle has not moved. I’m driving myself crazy trying to figure out what I’m missing.
Is this how Mark Cuban felt when he sold Broadcast.com and shorted the NASDAQ before the meltdown? Is this how John Paulson felt when he shorted the housing market before the crash?
Okay, I’ll stop the melodramatics. I am only talking about a tight end here. With that said, I’m good with whatever advantage I can get. If I can get a potential top 10 tight end in the latter, latter, latter stages of the draft, I’m stoked. If it doesn’t work out, no biggie. The risk/reward is too favorable.
As the great Mr. Vu said, if you are not willing to take advantage of this opportunity….
Thanks for reading. You can reach me @Stan_Son.
