Author: Gerard LeConte III
When considering the flex position in fantasy football you do not often hear about tight ends. This is largely because until the very recent past, tight ends simply have not scored that much. While there has been stand out studs at the position for a long time, the drop off is usually pretty huge. For a comparison, in 2007 the top tight end was Jason Witten with 156.5 total fantasy points. All but six tight ends failed to score more than 100 fantasy points that year. The idea you could find a tight end on the waiver wire that you could successfully start at flex was laughable at best. However, in 2011, the fantasy points leader at tight end was Rob Gronkowsk,i with 240.9 points, and 11 tight ends broke the century mark. That’s remarkable, to say the least. It’s worth mentioning that tight ends’ numbers dipped in 2012, but that was largely due to injury and does not follow the upwards trend in the numbers we’ve seen for the last 6 years.
The start of the 2013 season indicates that this could be a crazy year for fantasy tight ends. After week two the #1 tight end, Jimmy Graham, is the #12 flex player overall. There are three tight ends in the top 20, while eleven are averaging in the double digits. Lucky for us, most of these tight ends were drafted very low or not at all. This offers the unique opportunity to snag one of them and see if they can compete with some running backs or wide receivers you are considering at flex.
Jordan Cameron
Jordan Cameron is owned in 69% of ESPN leagues, but he’s the #6 overall tight end. Through the first two weeks of football Cameron seems to be the only person that can catch these errant balls Brandon Weeden keeps slinging around, and that is going to be even more important now that Trent Richardson has been shipped off to Indianapolis. Of the 47 completions Weeden has managed, 14 of them have gone to Cameron. He leads the team in receptions and is second in targets. There are going to be a few more to go around, too. It’s unclear who the Browns are planning to replace Richardson with at the moment, but it’s doubtful that he will absorb all of Richardson’s 11 targets. He also caught Weeden’s only touchdown thus far. Cameron has the most receiving yards on the team with 203. #2 is Davone Bess with 85. Things will get even better when Josh Gordon comes back and brings with him another legitimate receiving threat. Cameron’s role in this offense is huge, and it’s not getting smaller any time soon.