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Without targets, there would be no receptions. Being targeted is the first, and most crucial factor, to the success of a pass catcher. If the ball isn’t thrown in your direction, you cannot succeed. I decided to take a look at how targets were being spread around among each team and then how each player was converting those targets. Below are the results and I’ve included a link to the Excel spreadsheet (Download) containing the full report. This exercise will only be “targeting” wide receivers and tight ends.

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For a sixth straight season, Razzball will be interviewing NFL-team blogs for some actual in-depth football knowledge to shed some additional light on our fantasy football knowledge.  Keep your eye out for an interview for every NFL team for our Team Preview Series through the summer.  This installment comes courteous of Sander Philipse from the leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers blog: Bucs Nation.

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Welcome to the new off-season series, aptly named ‘Final Fantasy’. In this series, Razzball will be focusing the spotlight on certain players that either exceeded or fell-by-the-wayside of our expectations, and we’ll briefly touch them with our thoughts, legally. Despite rumor (and the series name), we will not be discussing anything +5 to magic missile. Unless there’s actually a NFL player that shoots missiles. And has, like, an amulet to vitality or something like that. Michael Vick’s -98 amulet of dog-caring will be excluded in this particular instance. Regardless, let’s get to the spotlight for today, and that’s Eli Manning.

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What a mess. This position has officially become Highlander because there really can be only one. You know exactly which one, don’t even bother asking. Writing this list is gonna make me hate Tight Ends more than any man should. It wasn’t even a Tale of Two Cities because even at the best of times, it was the worst of times. For all the promise of talent, I’m not certain many lived up to it. Don’t make me even talk about Zach Sudfeld…but I’m already depressing you and we haven’t even started. If there was ever a position to stream moving forward, TE would be the place. Though I haven’t done the numbers, I’d bet there were way more ‘out of nowhere’ top 10 TE finishes in 2013 than at any other skill or QB position. It’s all about matchups save for a few of these guys so my stance of not overspending on TE still stands, but hopefully I get myself roped into the right late rounder in 2014. Ugh, let’s just get this over with. Here’s the Top 20 Tight Ends from the 2013 Fantasy Football season…

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With our fake football season winding down you are either in the playoffs, positioning yourself for the sprint to the Shiva or crying Knowshon Moreno tears because you drafted Aaron Rodgers and Arian Foster. Need a hug? If you are in, congratulations. All those hours spent researching, analyzing stats and ignoring the family paid off. Cheers, I raise my whiskey glass to you. If you are out, all those hours spent researching, analyzing stats and ignoring the family were for naught. And your wife just served the divorce papers. There’s nothing like spending Christmas with your best friend Johnny Walker at the Motel 6. For those playoff bound, it is no time to quit it with the chronic rosterbating. Don’t worry you won’t go blind, but you may need glasses. It is however, time to stop taking chances on the “upside” guys. But Guru, doesn’t Ace Anders have a lot of potential. Yeah, I know disembodied voice of Razzball Nation, but potential is one thing in Week 3, it is quite another as we head into the playoffs. Stick with your consistent ballers, that’s who got you here. I only need one defense, right Mr. Turban? Well, my fellow Razzballer, if you are one of those that doesn’t own the Seattle or Carolina defense, don’t stop streaming the D now. Find the best matchup for the week and look ahead to the next few weeks. If you have roster room, pick up the defenses that have the best matchups going forward, i.e., any team facing the Jags or the Jets. If you don’t have room for three defenses, drop the dead weight off your roster. Trent Richardson isn’t going to turn into AP anytime soon. Whattabout kicker’s? Grab three of those, too? Don’t get all crazy now, Taco. One kicker will do, just make sure he’s on a high scoring team, plays in dome or has a good weather matchup. But, o wise guru, there’s nothing good on the waiver wire. Not true, my playoff bound friend. Just choose wisely. That’s why I’m here. The fake footballin’ championship is within your grasp and all the glory, bragging rights, cash and prizes are there for the taking. It’s time to jam it or cram it.

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Instead of diving in with the usual pizzazz, I want to step back and take a look at something that happened last week. Baltimore running back Ray Rice was held to 36 yards on 13 carries before leaving with a strained left hip flexor.

And then fantasy football showed its dark side. While we can’t see what was sent to him on his timeline (@RayRice27), it’s safe to say there were quite a few vicious tweets and people verbally puking on him.

What the hell is wrong with people? I get that Twitter gives a platform that can give more direct access to athletes than was ever possible before. To take it that far is ridiculous. This is a GAME, folks. It’s not life and death. As a fantasy doctor, I get life and death. Whether your team wins a game in Week 2 isn’t it.

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Well, the first week has happened and as we all know, the first week means everything. We can pencil in Peyton to throw 112 touchdowns on the year. We can also mark Ray-Ray down for only 576 rushing yards but he will catch 128 passes. In this same vein of thought, I’m leading our season of buys on a game that feels like it was so long ago now because we’re a generation of people who think instant message should equal instant response. I’m looking back over comments and I keep seeing the worry about our man Eric Decker. During a night where Peyton tied an NFL record for touchdown passes in a single game, Decker finished the night with 2 receptions for 32 yards on 7 targets. That’s what the stats say. Wanna know what I say? He t-rexed a back of the end zone touchdown and dropped another 10-15 yard bunny later. His night could’ve easily been at least 55 and a touchdown on 4 receptions. But bad nights happen to everyone. They’re gonna happen to your guys here and there all season. It’s natural. But some nights look worse then others and when it’s your first week of the year in the first game of the year in a Nationally Televised and scrutinized game, it’s painfully clear. The guy who started Decker is panicking right now. Welker went off. Demaryius went off. Orange Julius went off. Hell, even Caldwell caught a touchdown! Decker’s trash! Throw him out with the bathwater! The key thing to remember here is he was third on the team in targets with 7. Tied with your boy Julius. Oh and he was targeted in the RZ on his drop. Then Wes got his second TD of the night on the very next play. I’m not saying you should be throwing your signed Alan Thicke photo in on the deal here, of course. The guy you’re trading with has to be worried enough to cough him up for something of lesser value and I think the fear about Eric should be big enough to make that happen. In other Buy/Sell news for 2013 Fantasy Football…

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For a fourth straight season, Razzball will be interviewing local NFL beat writers for some actual in-depth football knowledge to shed some additional light on our fantasy football knowledge.  Keep your eye out for an interview for every NFL team through the summer.  This installment comes courteous of Dennis Esser from leading New York Giants blog Big Blue View:

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Well, we’ve gone through just about every type of 20 there is this week. We’ve brought you the Top 20 Quarterbacks, Running Backs, and Wide Receivers and now we’re here to talk about Tight Ends for our 2013 Fantasy Football Rankings. On the one hand, the position is deep. On the other hand, there’s really only two ringers in the bunch that will outpace their TE compadres by enough that you’ll truly notice. On the third hand which is actually just a cut out of the Hamburger Helper that I’ve glued to my shirt, Tight End is the position just behind QB on which I’m going to say do not take a top one unless they fall to you in the draft. It’s a position that had a few surprises last year that crept into the top 10 and I fully expect the same to happen this year for various reasons. In shallow enough leagues, I’m going to be very tempted to stream them as needed until it proves I have a keeper or until someone notices it and starts hoarding guys like Marcedes Lewis. At that point, it’s clear I’ve done my job: made someone done lose their minds. But that’s my approach and not what this is all about. This is the Top 20 Tight Ends for 2013 Fantasy Football…

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With the NFL season approaching – and by approaching I mean it’s never going to get here! – we get to finish off the dynasty rankings with what might be one of the most painful positions to try to manage in fantasy football. In the past few years, the tight end position has gone from extremely unimportant to now the focal point of many offenses, making the position in fantasy football much more relevant. Unfortunately the talent that is available is extremely top heavy, leaving only a few options that you have to spend either a lot of money on in an auction draft or a high pick in a start up. My recommendation? If you miss out on the Top 2, and with Rob Gronkowski’s health in question, maybe just the Top 1, you have to look to add multiple options and look to find the next great option to help your team become dominant. Let’s take a look at the dynasty tight end rankings and some options that could rise to the top of the rankings in the near future and long term.

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It seems like the more we see of Greg Jennings in the media, the less news there actually is about him concerning football. Last year his owners got to see his believe in your smellf campaign more than they got to see him on the football field as he only played in 8 games in 2012. It was like the exact oppostite of Bader-Meinhoff Syndrome (real thing) as his owners started a Go F@#$ Your Smellf campaign (not a real thing) in protest of his absence. Then at the start of free agency and even leading up to it, Greg Jennings talking on ESPN was more commonplace than Greg Jennings actually signing as it took until most of the rumored suitors had moved on with another player before he ‘picked’ the Vikings for a 5 year deal. Honestly, this was a desperation play on both sides that could benefit the fantasy community quite handsomely. You see, for all the issues with how bad Ponder was last year – and yes make no mistake he was bad and not in a Michael Jackson sort of way – he still produced a top ten caliber wide out before Percy Harvin got hurt and then moved on to the double entendre ‘Evergreen State’ this off-season. There’s no reason to think Jennings can’t still hold value without Aaron Rodgers at the helm. Of course, there IS a question of whether or not he can stay healthy enough to produce as he’s only played 21 games in the last two seasons. In a way too early way to evaluate things, Jennings is looking like a 6th round pick right now and the 27th wide receiver off the board and this is before many mocks have happened with the new locale for him. Something tells me Greg is going to keep slipping which should create a reasonable value when considering volume being a factor. Before losing Harvin to injury, 36% of Ponder’s completions went to Percy. To put that in perspective, of Stafford’s 435 completions, 25% went to Calvin Johnson. Being a big fish in a little pond is a huge boon to fantasy value even if the pond is covered in algae and has the local sewage run-off going into it. If Jennings can stay healthy, he’s going to reward his owners with a WR2 season for a fraction of the cost. Sleeper potential is high here.

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A review of the Top 20 Tight Ends for 2012 fantasy football always feels like a lie to me. It really only takes a few good games to get in the top 10 of this position, as you’ll no doubt notice. Some of these players went missing for weeks on end; just ask the owners who put their faces on the backs of milk cartons across the US in the hopes that someone had spotted them recently. Outside of the top pick of this tight end group, there was very little consistency to be had and even said player dropped the ball on his team during the championship week. As stated previously – that is if this isn’t the first top insert position here that I put up…which it might be…but I don’t think it will be – the stats below don’t include week 17 seeing as you didn’t count them so why should we? And for more full disclosure, we’re relying on the yahoo PPR rankings to date through week 16 for our review system. But enough about that, let’s get down to brass knuckle tacks and review the top 20 tight ends from the 2012 fantasy football season…

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