Written By Brian Dezelske
As the old saying goes: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That phrase holds very true in the fantasy sports world. Example: Alex Rodriguez. He was basically written off by everyone, including myself, before the 2015 baseball season started. The Yankees didn’t even want him in the lineup. He was simply tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper.
However, my buddy and I wound up selecting him in the last round of our fantasy baseball draft this year — and I had to seriously pull some teeth to get my co-owner to go along with it. My argument: What’s the worst that could happen? If he sucks, so what … we wasted our final pick on him. No harm, no foul. But why pass up on the possibility of him tearing it up? The result up to this point is a far better season than anyone predicted him having.
My point is that in order to be successful in fantasy sports, you’re going to have to dig through some garbage and take chances on forgotten players.
One of those players in the fantasy football world happens to be Kyle Rudolph.
Let me say right now that I’m not calling Kyle Rudolph garbage. All Minnesota Vikings fans, which I am, know what kind of player he is. All the evidence we need came back in the 2012 season, when he last played a full 16-game schedule. He finished with nine touchdowns and was a red zone nightmare for opposing defenses, with all his scores coming inside the 20-yard line. The yardage wasn’t necessarily there, but I think we all can agree that had more to do with who was under center (Christian Ponder) than anything else.
Since then Rudolph has been riddled with various injuries and has only played in 17 regular-season games over the past two seasons. But now he’s finally 100 percent healthy, and his top priority is playing the entire 16-game slate in 2015.
Also, for the first time in Rudolph’s career, he has a viable quarterback that will get him the ball on a consistent basis. Teddy Bridgewater took over in Week 3 of his 2014 rookie campaign and has displayed everything you want in a signal caller. But the one thing Teddy never really had last year was a reliable safety valve in the middle of the field. Everyone knows that tight ends are a quarterback’s best friend.
Another addition that favors the former Fighting Irish star is wide receiver Mike Wallace. His ability to stretch the defense will open plenty of holes across the middle of the field, making Rudolph’s ability to work much easier. Oh, and let’s not forget the return of the best running back on the planet. There’s no need to explain what a top-notch running game does for the passing game.
So why am I linking Rudolph to garbage? Because NOBODY is talking about him. All the tight end talk is dominated by the likes of Gronk, Jimmy Graham and Travis Kelce, while Rudolph seems to have been tossed aside like — what was it I said earlier? — yesterday’s newspaper?
His current average draft position (ADP) has him sitting at 13.01 in 10-team leagues, and 13.04 in 12-team leagues. He’s being viewed as nothing more than a TE2 by almost everyone. He’s simply getting no love, which is insane.
I currently rank him as my No. 5 overall tight end, and fully believe he backs this up if he plays the entire season.
Of course, the key word there is “if.” However, snaking Rudolph in the 12th or 13th round lessens the “if” factor considerably, because you’re simply not giving up that much to get him. Let’s say he does go down to yet another freak injury. Streaming the position is always a great Plan B and is what most owners are doing if they’re drafting tight ends this late anyway.
If you’re like I am and tend to stream tight ends based on matchups, sitting back and letting big No. 82 fall to you at the end of your draft essentially rids you of any worries, meanwhile the upside of a top-end TE1 is a real possibility. There’s really no downside to him being on your roster.
If fantasy owners are still not convinced, then let me ask this: Who would you rather lose for part or all of a season? Rob Gronkowski with a 2.05 ADP, or Rudolph? It’s obviously a rhetorical question and a no-brainer: Gronk is definitely not immune to injuries, not to mention he’s without Tom Brady for the first quarter of the season. So there’s a much bigger risk there if you’re comparing the two.
I hope this helps shed some light on one of the toughest positions to predict in the fantasy game. Make sure you continue to check out the Cold Omaha page for more fantasy football analysis throughout the 2015 season.
Brian Dezelske is the host of Cold Omaha’s Ticket Fantasy Football Podcast, which you can catch here on 105TheTicket.com. He’s also Cold Omaha’s fantasy football contributor. Before that he was a contributor to Bruno Boys Fantasy Football, and was also a featured columnist with Bleacher Report covering the Minnesota Vikings. Follow him on Twitter @BrianDezelske.