Draft George Kittle Early or Wait On TE?
Redraft season is on the horizon and roster construction is important to your success in season long leagues. Your roster construction starts during the draft and this series will focus on the “this or that” of selecting a position during the draft and what the ramifications of that selection for your team is.
For this exercise, the position group selected with the first picks will be contrasted by the opposite position in the later pick. For example, if you took a RB in round two vs a WR in round two, the round 10 selection would compare taking a WR to pair with your second round RB and vice versa. All ADP is derived from ffcalculator.com and is based on 12 team PPR. Let’s check out part seven.
THE PEOPLE’S TE OR THE TD RECEPTIONS LEADER IN 2019?
George Kittle is a freak. You don’t gain fantasy points for impacting the running game, but I just wanted to throw out there that Kittle is the best all-around TE we’ve seen since prime Rob Gronkowski. After setting the single-season receiving yards record for a TE in 2018, Kittle saw a bit of a dip in totals for 2019 while battling injury for most of the season. Still, Kittle was dominant and returned value at his 2019 ADP. WR Kenny Golladay burst on the scene last year to lead the NFL in receiving TDs despite playing eight games with QBs Jeff Driskel and David Blough. QB Matthew Stafford is healthy again, and was pacing for nearly 5,000 passing yards before being shut down eight weeks into 2019. Kittle’s current ADP is 25, while Golladay sits at an ADP of 26. Here’s what they did in 2019.
Kittle – TE3 (222.5 FP) TE2 (15.9 FP/G)
Golladay – WR9 (250.0 FP) WR13 (15.6 FP/G)
See George Kittle & Kenny Golladay In Our 2020 Fantasy Draft Rankings!
The 49ers are marred with injuries at WR right now, and have gone as far as to sign WR Kevin White to help bolster that unit. Realistically, George Kittle is this teams WR1. When WR Deebo Samuel returns from injury and first round pick WR Brandon Aiyuk gets his NFL legs, Kittle may see a slight decline in volume, but will still be the most targeted player in San Francisco. Will the run heavy attack limit Kittle’s production? Will positive game script force Kittle into more of a blocking role in 2020? Golladay showed that he is a baller, despite who plays QB.
If Stafford can come close to 5,000 passing yards in 2020, Golladay should be a big benefactor along with his elite redzone numbers. Will second year TE T.J. Hockenson eat into Golladay’s TD numbers? The Lions have made it a point to be more run focused, will this reduce Golladay’s TD numbers?
WHO TO PAIR?
If you selected Kittle at 25, you could pair him with WR Courtland Sutton (ADP 63). If you selected Golladay at 26 you could pair him with TE Darren Waller (ADP 61). Let’s examine their 2019 seasons.
Sutton – WR19 (220.9 FP) WR29 (13.8 FP/G)
Waller – TE2 (223.0 FP) T-TE5 (13.9 FP/G)
Sutton blossomed into an alpha WR in his second year in the NFL. Denver continued to load up on offensive weapons for second year QB Drew Lock. The other offensive weapons Denver has on offense include: first round TE Noah Fant, first round WR Jerry Jeudy, second round WR K.J. Hamler, and Pro-Bowl Running Backs Melvin Gordon and Phillip Lindsay. That is a lot of mouths to feed. Sutton should still lead this team in targets, but how evenly will these targets be distributed? Waller was the league winning TE in 2019 (along with Mark Andrews of the Ravens).
With such a late ADP, Waller was essentially free and dominated in the absence of WR Antonio Brown. The Raiders added first round WR Henry Ruggs III, and third round WR Bryan Edwards to pair with WR Hunter Renfrow and star RB Josh Jacobs. HC Jon Gruden said he wants to get Jacobs into the 40-50 target range, and with the addition of competent WRs through the draft, will Waller see the same volume he did in 2019?
2020 PROJECTIONS
VERDICT
This is a tough one for me. George Kittle is one of my favorite players in fantasy football due to the positional advantage he provides. I also love Kenny Golladay as a Lions fan. For me, the gap between Kittle and Waller is not as large as the gap between Golladay and Sutton. I think the combination of Golladay and Waller will be more stable and have more upside for my roster. There are just too many mouths to feed in Denver for me to project Sutton in the elite echelon of WR like Golladay. I’ll take Kenny G and Waller in this one.
What do you think? What would you do?
SEASONAL RANKINGS |TOP-300|
DYNASTY RANKINGS | QB | RB | WR | TE | 1QB ROOKIES | SF ROOKIES
