I don’t know how anyone else who does position rankings goes through the process, but I have a set approach. I have a spreadsheet that lists every player I think I might rank, with their weekly fantasy production and that week’s opponent next to their name, and I pick and choose. Sure, I will run searches for injury updates and player news and all, but that little spreadsheet is my pet toy.
Fantasy football rankings, Week 6: Tight ends
With so many awful numbers from tight ends so far, if you have a guy you can trust every week, cherish him.
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Now that it’s five weeks into the season, it’s not that hard to see, at a glance, whether individual players have put up good numbers. See a handful of double-digit numbers? Hey, good job. A bunch of 1’s and 0’s? You’re either typing in binary or that player’s awful. Fluke showings are easier to notice, as well.
This week, though, the biggest takeaway came when I was working on tight ends. That takeaway was how bloody awful tight ends have been. With the exception of the top handful (Jimmy Graham, Julius Thomas, Martellus Bennett ... you know the names), the week-by-week scoring outputs have been a lot of binary-code looks, with the occasional 8-pointer thrown in there to confuse the computer.
Only 10 tight ends are averaging even 50 yards a game. Sixteen tight ends have multiple touchdowns; only 11 have more than two, and one of those is Daniel Fells, who, no, you aren't going to start using in fantasy.
We all thought tight end would be deep this year. "If you don't get Jimmy Graham, wait for a super-late tight end" was a common refrain. It's not like that was necessarily wrong -- the super-late guys like Delanie Walker, Travis Kelce and Larry Donnell have been great, while early picks like Vernon Davis, Jason Witten and Jordan Cameron have been frustrating -- just that the position's supposed depth has been entirely lacking.
This week, with studs like Graham and Kelce both on byes, and the health and gameplan relevance of Davis, Niles Paul and Jordan Reed in doubt, the tight end position is even more of a wasteland. If you have Thomas or Rob Gronkowski, hey, congrats. If you don't, well, could I interest you in a middling vintage of Jared Cook?
To the Week 6 ranks:
Tight end rankings, Week 6
(DK: Daniel Kelley; JD: John Daigle; SK: Scott Kaliska; Dan Ciarrocchi has the week off)
| Rank | Player | Team | Opponent | DK | JD | SK |
| 1 | Julius Thomas | DEN | @NYJ | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Rob Gronkowski | NE | @BUF | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| 3 | Martellus Bennett | CHI | @ATL | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | Greg Olsen | CAR | @CIN | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| 5 | Delanie Walker | TEN | JAC | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| 6 | Larry Donnell | NYG | @PHI | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| 7 | Antonio Gates | SD | @OAK | 10 | 8 | 4 |
| 8 | Owen Daniels | BAL | @TAM | 9 | 4 | 13 |
| 9 | Dwayne Allen | IND | @HOU | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| 10 | Jordan Cameron | CLE | PIT | 8 | 18 | 8 |
| 11 | Zach Ertz | PHI | NYG | 13 | 10 | 12 |
| 12 | Heath Miller | PIT | @CLE | 20 | 13 | 9 |
| 13 | Jason Witten | DAL | @SEA | 11 | 19 | 14 |
| 14 | Jared Cook | STL | SF | 15 | 11 | 19 |
| 15 | Tim Wright | NE | @BUF | 16 | 12 | 18 |
| 16 | Vernon Davis | SF | @STL | 21 | 16 | 11 |
| 17 | Jordan Reed | WAS | @ARI | 14 | 21 | 16 |
| 18 | Niles Paul | WAS | @ARI | 12 | -- | 15 |
| 19 | Eric Ebron | DET | @MIN | 23 | 15 | 17 |
| 20 | Austin Seferian-Jenkins | TAM | BAL | 19 | 17 | 21 |
| 21 | Clay Harbor | JAC | @TEN | 25 | 14 | 24 |
| 22 | Charles Clay | MIA | GB | 22 | 22 | 20 |
| 23 | Coby Fleener | IND | @HOU | 17 | -- | -- |
| 24 | Scott Chandler | BUF | NE | 18 | -- | -- |
| 25 | Andrew Quarless | GB | @MIA | -- | 20 | -- |
| -- | Jace Amaro | NYJ | DEN | 24 | 23 | -- |
| -- | John Carlson | ARI | DET | -- | -- | 22 |
| -- | Garrett Graham | HOU | IND | -- | -- | 23 |
| -- | Derek Carrier | SF | @STL | -- | 24 | -- |
| -- | Jermaine Gresham | CIN | CAR | -- | 25 | -- |
| -- | Levine Toilolo | ATL | CHI | -- | -- | 25 |
