being on the bubble with the Ravens? Maybe I just imagined it, but I thought there was something to that affect during the draft coverage. Outside of that I’d say it’s a pretty good list.

I think in a year or two Greg Olsen will be amongst the elite tight ends in the league. He has tremendous potential!

The only one I’d put him ahead of is Ben Watson, who has always been athletic (chasing down Champ Bailey) but has never been as productive as projected.

Bo Scaife?

Yeah that makes sense…Tenesse has no passing game, Heap is always injuried, plus they just signed L.J. Smith, Watson is the number one TE in a system that rarely uses the TE…

Olsen should be somewhere in the latter portion of the top-10 or very worse 11 or 12 based on these stats.

10th in receptions
12th in yards
7th in TDs (5)

btw- Zach Miller only had 1 TD; that should drop him past Greg.

It would have been better if it were broken down according to the permutations stated in the beginning.

“The tight end position has many permutations in today’s NFL. There is the traditional in-line player, the tight end who splits out wide, the shifting tight end and the tight end/fullback hybrid better known as an H-back.”

Although they attempted to qualify their rankings with the last statement:

“The best are those who can impact the passing game and do enough as a blocker to be an every-down player.”

As someone here has stated a time or two before, “that one had potential” “-1”

So I am OK with it but I love Olsen so I am probably biased.

I’d have Tony Gonzales at 1 and Clark at 2. I don’t see Witten putting up big numbers without the threat of TO protecting him, so he’s probably 3rd. I’d move Gates to 4th and Miller to 5th, putting Winslow at 6th. Cooley would move ahead of Daniels, and we’ve only seen this one really good year from Daniels, so I see a big drop-off between Cooley at 7 and him at 8. Then I’ve gotta put our boy Greg Olsen at 9, showing just how weak the TE position at the NFL is.

But those are just my thoughts :\

He will at least be in the top 7 after this year. My prediction.

After that, you could put the next 8 guys in a hat to pick the order. They’re all flawed and have similar stats. Even though Winslow has a serious injury past, lets put him 4th because when healthy he’s real good. The rest:

D. Clark: 77r 848 yds last year, but only 58 catches the year before. Lots of TD’s, but Peyton Manning will do that for you. 11 ypc not that great.
H. Miller: 48r, 514yds, 3tds is nothing special
T. Heap: 35r, 403yds, 3tds, not good, only 23 catches the year before.
Z.Miller: 56r, 778yds, 1td, but yes high ypc at 13.9. Year before though was pretty pedestrian (44r, 444yds, 3td), but he’s a 3rd year guy only and has had really bad QBs.
B.Scaife: 58r, 561yds, 2tds, 9.7 ypc, similar stats the year before.
O.Daniels: 70r, 862tds, 2tds, 12.3 ypc. Year before good too 63r, 768yds, 3tds.
C.Cooley: 83r, 849yds, 1td. Big jump from 66 and 57 catches previous 2 years. But had lots more TD’s in previous years.

So that leads me to Olsen’s numbers: 54r, 574 yds, for 10.6ypc & 5tds. His numbers don’t vault him high up the list because he does share time with Dez Clark.

I guess I put Olsen right after Daniels, Cooley, & Clark and maybe Z.Miller. He’s ahead of Scaife, Heap, H.Miller and Watson for sure though.
   

I think from about #6 on down the guys really aren’t separated by much. You could arrange most of those guys in almost any order and you’d be able to make some case for it.

I think Olsen’s towards the top of that group, but I don’t know that he’s truly separated himself from the pack yet. He does have that potential, though.