Pre-Draft Positional Review – Other

Since I don’t intend on looking into defensive needs or offensive lines that leaves us with the Tight End and Kicker positions to look into.

I’ve listed the Tight Ends, Kickers and which tier I consider each Defense to be in.

Here's how I see the teams currently:

Team	TE1	TE2	K	DEF
ARI	Ricky Seals-Jones	Jermaine Gresham	Phil Dawson	Tier 3
ATL	Austin Hooper	Logan Paulsen	Matt Bryant	Tier 3
BAL	Nick Boyle	Maxx Williams	Justin Tucker	Tier 1
BUF	Charles Clay	Nick O'Leary	Steven Hauschka	Tier 5
CAR	Greg Olsen	Chris Manhertz	Graham Gano	Tier 4
CHI	Trey Burton	Adam Shaheen	Cody Parkey	Tier 3
CIN	Tyler Eifert	Tyler Kroft	Randy Bullock	Tier 4
CLE	David Njoku	Darren Fells	Zane Gonzalez	Tier 5
DAL	Jason Witten	James Hanna	Dan Bailey	Tier 5
DEN	Jake Butt	Jeff Heuerman	Brandon McManus	Tier 1
DET	Luke Willson	Levine Toilolo	Matt Prater	Tier 4
GB	Jimmy Graham	Lance Kendricks	Mason Crosby	Tier 4
HOU	Ryan Griffen	Stephen Anderson	Kaimi Fairbairn	Tier 1
IND	Eric Ebron	Jack Doyle	Adam Vinateri	Tier 6
JAX	Austin Sefarian-Jenkins	Niles Paul	Josh Lambo	Tier 1
KC	Travis Kelce	Demetrius Harris	Harrison Butker	Tier 2
LAC	Hunter Henry	Virgil Green	Caleb Sturgis	Tier 1
LA	Gerald Everett	Tyler Higbee	Greg Zuerlein	Tier 1
MIA	AJ Derby	Marqueis Grey	None	Tier 6
MIN	Kyle Rudolph	David Morgan	Kai Forbath	Tier 1
NE	Rob Gronkowski	Dwayne Allen	Stephen Gostkowski	Tier 2
NO	Benjamin Watson	Josh Hill	Will Lutz	Tier 2
NYG	Evan Engram	Rhett Ellison	Aldrick Rosas	Tier 4
NYJ	Jordan Leggett	Clive Walford	Cairo Santos	Tier 6
OAK	Jared Cook	N/A	Georgio Tavecchio	Tier 6
PHI	Zach Ertz	Richard Rodgers	Jake Elliott	Tier 1
PIT	Jesse James	Vance McDonald	Chris Boswell	Tier 3
SF	George Kittle	Garrett Celek	Robbie Gould	Tier 6
SEA	Nick Vanett	Ed Dickson	Sebastian Janikowski	Tier 4
TB	Cameron Brate	OJ Howard	Chandler Catanzaro	Tier 5
TEN	Delaine Walkier	Jonnu Smith	Ryan Succop	Tier 4
WAS	Jordan Reed	Vernon Davis	Dustin Hopkins	Tier 5

Kickers

Starting with kickers (just for a change) the main thing to note is that Miami are the only team without a kicker on their roster. There’s a few rookie prospects they could choose to go after if they want a true rebuild, otherwise there are 4 remaining free agents who were involved in the 2017 season:

Player (K)	Status
Blair Walsh	FA
Mike Nugent	FA
Nick Novak	FA
Patrick Murray	FA
Eddy Pineiro	Rookie
Griffin Oakes	Rookie
Michael Dickson	Rookie

I think if the Dolphins are going for the rebuild properly they will draft a kicker in the last round and let them grow with the team but they equally could just pick the veteran who will come for the least money, either way they will have to do something.

The teams where I have highlighted the kicker in yellow are teams who could draft a kicker with the intention to have a battle or to place on the practice squad. They need to have an eye on the future but it isn’t yet an emergency.

Tight Ends

As for Tight Ends there are a few teams who are very light on tight end numbers and especially on pass catching talent. Fantasy relevant options are getting slimmer at the position but the new generation might serve up some more gems if the draft goes favorably.

Player (TE)	Status
Julius Thomas	FA
Dallas Goedert	Rookie
Dalton Schultz	Rookie
Hayden Hurst	Rookie
Ian Thomas	Rookie
Mark Andrews	Rookie
Mike Gesicki	Rookie
Troy Fumagalli	Rookie

As you can see by the options there aren’t really any veterans left apart from Julius Thomas and I managed to pick out 7 rookies who may be worth taking a look at. It’s well documented that tight ends struggle to break out in year one without exceptional circumstances (see Evan Engram last year) but for a team with a serious need one of these guys may have a chance to break into the line-up early.

I’d argue the Dolphins are in desperate need of a tight end pass catcher and Detroit will be in the market too. Arizona, Baltimore, Houston, Seattle and Dallas are also possible landing spots for some of the rookies. 

To quickly cover the defensive tiers, these are just my early rankings. Teams in tiers 4, 5 and 6 might concentrate more on their defense rather than the skill positions which affects some of my comments made in earlier sections but when Thursday comes around we will see if any of my thoughts become the reality.