Fantasy football advice, Divisional round: FanDuel tight ends, kickers, defenses

Get past Gronk, and these are a bunch of low-salary options.Click here to get a 100% deposit bonus on FanDuel

Jan 10, 2015, 4:30 PM UTC

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Most FanDuel salaries at the end positions (tight end, kicker, defense) stay low. This week, if you want to spend $6,000 or more on anyone at any of the three positions, you have only Rob Gronkowski ($7,900) and Greg Olsen ($6,200) to choose from. Heck, at kicker, it's a $300 range from the top of the position to the bottom.

So at these positions, somewhat more than the others, a ranking is more about just going top-to-bottom than taking salary into account. That varies just a bit at tight end, but the salaries matter the least here.

Regardless, the rankings do take salary into account. You’ll see some rationale for that at the top of the tight ends. All three of the positions will be ranked below, with some thoughts for each to follow. Kickers, of course, are often crapshoots, but every position matters.

Let’s get to it. Tight ends first:

Tight ends

Rank	Player	Team	Opponent	Salary
1	Rob Gronkowski	NE	BAL	$7,900
2	Tim Wright	NE	BAL	$4,600
3	Jason Witten	DAL	@GB	$5,500
4	Dwayne Allen	IND	@DEN	$5,000
5	Andrew Quarless	GB	DAL	$4,500
6	Greg Olsen	CAR	@SEA	$6,200
7	Coby Fleener	IND	@DEN	$5,400
8	Owen Daniels	BAL	@NE	$5,100
9	Luke Willson	SEA	CAR	$4,600
10	Julius Thomas	DEN	IND	$5,500
11	Ed Dickson	CAR	@SEA	$4,600
12	Crockett Gillmore	BAL	@NE	$4,700

There's a reason Gronkowski is so much more expensive than all the other tight ends, and he's more than earned that. Taking him does reduce roster flexibility at the other slots, but he's so often worth it.
I'm not going to rehash my Wright argument here. If you're curious, just click here, or just about anywhere else I've written about football since, like, early October.
Those are, more or less, the only two tight ends I'm interested in using this week. Obviously, it doesn't work that way, so I gave a cursory ranking to the rest -- Witten is the best of the group, Allen is always a shot to score, Olsen is great but faces Seattle -- but I don't expect I'll be using any non-Patriots.
I'm still scared of Thomas' ankle. If I'm going below Gronkowski/Wright, I'd prefer a guy who doesn't have an ankle problem.

Kickers

Rank	Player	Team	Opponent	Salary
1	Stephen Gostkowski	NE	BAL	$4,800
2	Steven Hauschka	SEA	CAR	$4,700
3	Connor Barth	DEN	IND	$4,700
4	Mason Crosby	GB	DAL	$4,600
5	Adam Vinatieri	IND	@DEN	$4,700
6	Dan Bailey	DAL	@GB	$4,600
7	Justin Tucker	BAL	@NE	$4,500
8	Graham Gano	CAR	@SEA	$4,500

More or less, the kicker rankings align with my predictions for these games, which makes sense, since the most successful kickers are the ones who get the chance to succeed most often, and that means their teams are the highest-scoring. I prefer Gostkowski and Hauschka for what feels like the hundredth year in a row, but I could easily get behind any of the top four.
The only kicker I definitely would not use this week is Gano. I just can't see Carolina having much success at Seattle.

Defenses

Rank	Team	Opponent	Salary
1	Seattle	CAR	$5,200
2	Denver	IND	$4,900
3	New England	BAL	$5,000
4	Carolina	@SEA	$4,800
5	Indianapolis	@DEN	$4,500
6	Green Bay	DAL	$4,700
7	Baltimore	@NE	$4,800
8	Dallas	@GB	$4,500

Even if it's the most expensive, Seattle is the clear top option among defenses this week. The Panthers looked good down the stretch by finishing their regular season against New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Atlanta, but that's definitely not an elite offense, and we saw them turn the ball over to Arizona enough times.
The rest of the defense rankings were frustrating more than anything. I like Denver's defense, but not so much against Andrew Luck. I think Carolina could do OK, but I expect the offense to struggle so much that it could kill the defense's potential.
Even with Aaron Rodgers hurt, I absolutely wouldn't feel comfortable using the Dallas defense.