5 Tight Ends to Target in Your Fantasy Football Draft
Tyler Eifert, Cincinatti Bengals
ADP: 128 (11.04)
Coming off injury a season-ending elbow injury in Week 1 of last year, Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert has declared himself 100% and ready to go for the 2015 season. And after opting not to re-sign last year's starting tight end Jermaine Gresham, it looks as if the Bengals front office and coaching staff are convinced that Eifert can shoulder the load as an every-down player this year.
Does all of this sound in any way similar to a certain someone we discussed at number one on this list earlier?
But the comparisons to Travis Kelce don't stop there.
Standing at 6' 5" and 250 pounds, and with Combine numbers that are nearly identical to or surpass Kelce in almost every category, Eifert has the profile of a top-tier NFL tight end.
However, despite these measurables Eifert has yet to wow anyone with his on-field play. In terms of efficiency, Eifert's 0.50 Reception NEP per target in 2013 ranked him as the 24th-best tight end in this metric among all those with at least 50 targets.
And as our Associate Editor Brandon Gdula found earlier this year, this inefficiency was likely due to a lack of targets where it matters most for tight ends: in the red zone. Indeed, Eifert accounted for just 10.8 percent of the Bengals' red zone targets, scoring just once when the team was in this part of the field.
But as I mentioned before, with Gresham out of the picture, this is all liable to change for Eifert in 2015. Indeed, quarterback Andy Dalton has looked to Eifert constantly in camp practices, admitting that with Eifert regularly getting open the two have been "able to hook up for some big plays."
It looks like whatever Eifert lacked in terms of efficiency last season, he'll more than make up for in volume this year.
While Eifert isn't the surefire bet to finish as a TE1 this year as some of the other names on this list, his tremendous potential and dirt cheap ADP easily makes him a worthwhile target for those you looking for a very low-cost tight end in the later rounds of your drafts this year.
