{"id":18740,"date":"2020-03-26T12:04:52","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/?p=18740"},"modified":"2020-03-26T12:04:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T16:04:52","slug":"dynasty-fantasy-football-should-you-avoid-non-early-declare-tight-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharpfootballanalysis.com\/fantasy\/dynasty-fantasy-football-should-you-avoid-non-early-declare-tight-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Dynasty Fantasy Football: Should You Avoid Non-Early Declare Tight Ends?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wrapping our look at all of the fantasy positions in search of a signal when incorporating early declare prospects versus non-early declares, we\u2019re closing things up with the tight ends.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This week we\u2019ve been exploring the future fantasy impact of early and non-early declare NFL prospects. The NFL has shifted to more players being granted early eligibility and entering the draft earlier than ever. With that in mind, we\u2019re hoping to take that signal and see if there\u2019s anything to take from it since it\u2019s a way to fold draft age, breakout age, and draft capital into one.<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, we\u2019ve covered the <\/span>wide receiver<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>running back<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>quarterback<\/span><\/a> positions. We inherently know the league values prospects who declare early highly because they\u2019ve flat-out told them so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, results so far have skewed heavily in favor of those early declare players performing at a higher level than their counterparts, but the gaps in that edge have varied position to position, which allows us to pinpoint what positions are safer or more probable to hit when making rookie selections.<\/span><\/p>\n

You can circle back to that original wide receiver post to going deeper into the methodology, but we\u2019re once again only accounting for players selected in the NFL draft over the past 10 years and how they performed on a per-game basis for fantasy output.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019d never say to write off any subset of players because there\u2019s a Hall of Famer involved here, but undrafted tight ends have had a dismal track record. Over the past 10 years, there have been just 20 seasons (8.3%) in which an undrafted tight end has produced a TE2 (TE24) or better season in points per game in PPR formats and just eight (6.7%) in which they reached TE1 status. <\/span>Antonio Gates<\/b> has accounted for seven of the TE2 or better seasons and five of those TE1 campaigns, with <\/span>Cameron Brate<\/b> (x2) and <\/span>Jack Doyle<\/b> providing the other three TE1 level seasons per game.<\/span><\/p>\n

TE Draft Selections Over the Past 10 Years<\/h2>\n