Evan Silva: I'm a believer in grabbing elite tight ends early in drafts and being aggressive at that position, because the fall-off behind the top four is immense. It's a classic case of position scarcity. At the same time, tight ends have a relatively high injury rate; each of this year's top four tight ends has had injury issues in the past (Jimmy Graham, Rob Gronkowski, Julius Thomas, Jordan Cameron). Therefore, I like the idea of pairing a top tight end with a breakout candidate tight end in the later rounds.
So I'm watching guys like Ladarius Green, Travis Kelce, Zach Ertz and Gavin Escobar closely. Kelce already had something of a breakout performance last Thursday night, which will lead to more opportunities. I want to see if Ertz will be an every-down player in Philly's 2014 offense after playing under 50 percent of last year's snaps. I want to see Green high-point passes like he did in San Diego's preseason opener. I also want to see his usage when Antonio Gates begins playing in exhibition games. Escobar is a guy I'm watching closely from a Dynasty perspective. The defense-less Cowboys are going to be a pass-dependent team in 2014, and Escobar might wind up playing a much bigger role than people expect.
