Early 2014 Fantasy Football TE Rankings

To continue the early position rankings that are being posted here at Fake Teams, I offer up my top 30 TE for the 2014 season. These rankings are based off of a standard scoring league, where only one TE is started, and needed on your roster, until your starter has a bye week. The TE position is one that takes an extreme dive in fantasy value after the first few guys. After the elite tier in Tight Ends, the next guys will offer up similar stats compared to one another, so do not reach for one thinking you need to fill out that position. The middle round picks are better spent on those lottery ticket Wide Receivers, and Running Backs, or even a handcuff for your top Running Back.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at my early top 30 TE’s for the 2014 season:

Jimmy Graham:

Graham has earned his spot as the top TE in the rankings with his elite numbers at the position, and also the consistency he has shown for the last three years. With numbers that emulate those of the elite WR’s, getting a top 10 WR on your team is always great, but when he is playing the weaker position of TE, that is fantasy gold.

Rob Gronkowski:

Quite possibly the hardest person to rank on this list was Rob Gronkowski. If the number of games Rob Gronkowski was going to play was easier to determine, he would not have to be slotted in on a number that may seem arbitrary. I personally have Gronkowski projected for 10 games right now, and his 10 games of elite numbers plus that of a replacement level TE for six games, are good enough for him to be #2 behind Jimmy Graham and barely ahead of Julius Thomas. Do not look at this ranking and think that draft position of him should be close to Graham than Thomas, but rather that he should be selected around the same spot as Julius Thomas will be.

Martellus Bennett:

An interesting situation arises for Martellus Bennett, as he now has Jay Cutler as his Quarter Back for the entire season, and no more Josh McCown. Bennett did most of his damage with Jay Cutler under center, as McCown looked for Alshon Jeffery and Brandon Marshall on a high majority of his throws. Extrapolating the stats that Bennett had with Cutler in the ten games where Cutler played a majority of the game over a 16 game season, his stats look like this: 75 receptions, 878 yards, and 5 TD’s, which would have been over 100 extra yards over his total last season. Those stats would have been good enough to be the #7 TE last season.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins:

The highest ranking TE on this list is Austin Seferian-Jenkins, but it is not because he is expected to put up a great season. He is simply the TE that was placed in the best position to succeed right away. Eric Ebron gets a lot of love as being the best TE in the 2014 draft class, but he is a member of the Detroit Lions who have other weapons who will come before him. Ebron has to take targets away from players like Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate, Reggie Bush, Joique Bell, as well as battle time away from Brandon Pettigrew. In Tampa Bay however, Seferian-Jenkins is fighting out targets with Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, Doug Martin, and to a lesser extent Timothy Wright. Even if he is not immediately implemented as a key player in the offense, he will still matter in the redzone as a big bodied target who can go up and get jump balls.

That is the early top 30 fantasy TE rankings for 2014, and these rankings will be changing as news and injuries dictate, since this is only May 23^rd and draft season doesn’t start until August for most. If there are other guys on this list that you want to know why I have them ranked at a certain spot, post in the comments, and I will respond with my rational.