An underrated aspect of Fantasy Football is a player’s consistency (or weekly reliability). Amari Cooper and Demaryius Thomas have both averaged 9.14 fantasy points per game over their past thirty games. However, they took different paths to get there, with Demaryius performing more consistently, but Cooper having higher weekly upside. Understanding your player’s consistency is important when weighing your lineup’s overall safety and upside. If you can afford to take on the risk of a more volatile player, Cooper is a better choice, but if you simply need 8-10 points to secure a win, plug in Demaryius. With this framework, we looked at the top ranked fantasy players’ prior 30 games to paint a picture of their recent fantasy production and consistency. In the article below, we look at the Tight End position. We already covered Running Backs here.

The table below shows summary statistics for each player’s last 30 games, excluding games missed from injury and games outside of Weeks 1-16. For some players, the sample size is smaller because they have yet to play 30 games. The first quartile (1stQ) is the 25th percentile of a player’s scores, meaning that 75% of the player’s past 30 scores are greater than or equal to this value. The third quartile (3rdQ) is the 75th percentile of a player’s score (i.e. 25% of the player’s scores are greater than or equal to this value). Put simply, players with a high 1stQ can be thought of as being more reliable, while player’s with a high 3rdQ deliver more big game outbursts. The CV, or coefficient of variance, is the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean. This measures the variance of the player’s score relative to their average. The lower the CV, the more consistent the player has been.

Tight Ends

Tight end is a position that combines the worst parts of all the others to make the most frustrating position in fantasy football. It combines the inconsistent workloads of WRs, the lack of roster-worthy players at QB, and the tendency to fall in-and-out of relevance that is found with RBs. For those reasons, finding a top-tier tight end, or just a consistent one, can give you an edge over other teams in your league. Obviously, when Gronk is healthy he is the best tight end (and one of the best overall players) in fantasy football, and his metrics here reflect that, as he has the highest mean, 1stQ, and 3rdQ marks. Going off these numbers alone, it is fairly easy to make a case for all of Jordan Reed, Greg Olsen, and Delanie Walker over Travis Kelce (who is currently being drafted 2nd among TEs). The player whose stock is most bolstered by these numbers is Delanie Walker. In his past thirty games, he has been more consistent and has averaged more points than Travis Kelce and Jordan Reed. In other words, Walker offers a high floor, solid ceiling, and elite consistency that is tough to find anywhere else. If you need more incentive to hop on the Delanie train, he has played 15 games in each of the last four years, something many other top TEs struggle to do.