Fantasy Football Predictions: Tight Ends, Week 1, 2008
August 24, 2008 by The Sports Watchers
TheSportsWatchers.com: This post was published 3 years 5 months 16 days ago which may make it irrelevant to your fantasy football inquiry. For up to date fantasy football projections and predictions, go to our homepage at TSW Fantasy Football. 
Well, that’s a loser’s mentality in fantasy football, because not only can having a bad tight end cost you a victory in Week 1 of fantasy football, but having the right tight end at the right time can bring you victory.
In projecting fantasy football tight ends, it’s the same as it is for the quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs as well—it’s all about matchups!
So in giving you Fantasy Football Week 1’s predictions and rankings, I have taken into account all of the various on-field intricacies that could make or break your team in the opening week of the NFL Regular season.
Before I get to the fantasy football projected starters at the tight end position, let me say one last thing about the importance of a tight end. In most standard fantasy football leagues, you will notice that the difference between last year’s #1 tight end (Jason Witten) and last year’s #10 tight end (Tony Scheffler) was just over 5 points per game. That’s a vast difference, especially when the tight ends aren’t usually where you’re looking to get the majority of your points from. Needless to say, you don’t want to have Scheffler on your roster when you’re going against the guy with Witten on his roster, because right there you’re pretty much down by 5 points before you even start the week, and that won’t bode well for you throughout the season.
Anyway, in giving you my fantasy football predictions, I want to help you avoid the scenario of having a Scheffler versus a Witten and help you start the right tight ends on your roster, even if they aren’t top 10 at the end of the season. This will help you avoid wasting a high round draft pick on a big name tight end, and it will help prevent you from losing points if you decide to wait until later in the draft to get less talented pick. Tight end is a great position to spot pick on your roster. So in an effort to help you pick this week’s spots, here are your fantasy football rankings for Week 1 of the NFL season, and a sleeper pick to help you out as well.
1. Jason Witten, Dallas Cowboys @ Cleveland Browns – Last year’s #1 tight end starts out on top again. His display of agility for someone his size is almost unmatched in this league, which makes him a very difficult cover for most linebackers. And considering that the Browns don’t have any linebackers (of note that is), they won’t be able to lock up Witten in sort of way. If your league counts receptions, Witten is an especially good pick this week, as most teams lacking defensive talent tend to try to limit the deep ball in their first game as a means of masking their deficiencies early on in the season. That should result in a lot of check down passes to Witten and a lot of points for you fantasy football team.
2. Kellen Winslow, Cleveland Browns vs. Dallas Cowboys – Needless to say, the Cowboys linebackers aren’t exactly great cover guys either. While their defense is considerably better at stopping the run and should have improved at covering wide receivers with the addition of Pac-Man Jones, they still don’t have linebackers that run all that well, and they certainly don’t have a guy that can run with an athletic beast like Kellen Winslow. Most likely, the Dallas Cowboys won’t be as conservative as the Browns, so instead of a lot of check down passes, you’ll probably see Derek Anderson throw Kellen a few passes down the seam, which could mean big plays and 1 or two touchdowns for Kellen—a good reason to pick him up in your drafts or your salary cap leagues.
3. Vernon Davis, San Francisco 49ers vs. Arizona Cardinals – Vernon had a better campaign in his sophomore season than he did in his rookie year, and expect the growth trend to continue in 2008. Vernon has great speed, a lot like Kellen, and that will make him a severe mismatch against the Arizona Cardinals. Plus, this is his first game under the Mike Martz system, and even though Martz doesn’t have a history with prolific tight ends in his offenses, he has been featuring Mr. Davis all off-season, and I’m sure that he will release his talents unto the world in Week 1 of the season.
Fantasy Football Sleeper Pick
Your sleeper pick is none other than Greg Olsen of the Chicago Bears. Call me crazy if you will, but I think Olsen will not only have a stellar Week 1, but that he is in line for a decent season. Kyle Orton looked pretty damn good in his pre-season “debut” as the starting quarterback for the Chicago Bears, and if he plays that well, Olsen will certainly have his chance to shine, just as he did at the University of Miami. And even if Orton doesn’t pan out at quarterback, Olsen could still have a big year being that reliable safety valve for Orton whenever he is in trouble. Going against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1, Orton will see a lot of pressure from the defensive line, so he will have to hit that safety valve in Orton a lot. Also, the Colts play that Tampa 2 defense, which plays right into the hands of tight ends that can run. So laugh at me if you want to for picking Olsen, but I think he is going to have a very big week for the Bears, and he will be a great sleeper pick for your fantasy football team if you put him on the roster.
More Fantasy Football Projections:
Quarterbacks - Predictions – Week 1
Running Backs - Predictions – Week 1
Wide Receivers – Predictions – Week 1
Tight Ends - Predictions – Week 1
Defenses - Predictions – Week 1
Good analysis overall. I don’t have as much faith in Vernon Davis as yo do though. Right on about Greg Olsen…I believe he will have an above average number of reception this season. By the way, great fantasy football advice and football draft tips can be found at Rotomania.com. This season should be a blast!