FANTASY FOOTBALL ARTICLES

Tight ends display the most consistency in size and height of any of the fantasy scoring positions. They come tall, they come big and as of last year, more and more are catching the ball.

Height - Almost every decent receiving tight end in the league last year was between 6'3" and 6'5" - not a very diverse crowd. The average was 6'4" which coincidentally describes both Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates. Alge Crumpler and Jermaine Wiggins were the munchkins in the crowd at "merely" 6'2".

Weight - There is only a 14 pound difference between all tight ends in the top 12 from 2004. Tony Gonzalez (248) hit the low mark while Alge Crumpler (264) had the high end (though the shortest as well). Apparently you will want your son to be 6'4" and around 255 in order to play tight end in the NFL. At least this year, anyway.

Age/Experience - There is a bit of a misleading trend here. Last year only Gonzalez had been playing more than five seasons and still made it into the top 12. Almost all the others were between three and five years. That is twofold in reason - first, it does take a younger player to serve in the dual role of blocker and receiver. They absorb a huge amount of hits over the season. Another factor though is that college is starting to pump out better tight ends than ever before which has bled into the way the NFL uses them. Rookie tight ends have always done very little as a rule, but it only takes a couple of seasons before they are ready for fantasy relevance.

Rookies: As noted above, the prospects for a rookie contributing much production is very limited. The top three tight ends from the 2005 draft all fit into the main criteria for a successful transition to the NFL. They are all 6'4" or 6'5" and weight around 255 pounds. Just wait a year or Iwo before boosting your expectations.