Tyler Eifert (TE, CIN) - 2015 Fantasy Football Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Target Towards End of Mid Rounds

CURRENT ADP: Overall #178 / TE #22

ANALYSIS: Eifert is a guy I’ve talked about before, but he is worth writing about again. Despite the fact that I have seen some buzz around Eifert in the fantasy community and that his Fantasy Pros consensus rank is TE11, Eifert’s ADP remains surprisingly late. Eifert is extremely athletic; see for yourself on Player Profiler. He was supposed to be a big part of the Bengals offense last season and while injury got in the way, that plan is in place once again for 2015.

Eifert picked up right where he left off last year. Before dislocating his elbow late in the first quarter of the first game in 2014, Eifert already had three catches for 37 yards. In the first preseason game of ‘15, Eifert had two catches for 30 yards on just 15 snaps. It’s obviously a very small sample size but it’s a very promising sign that Eifert is set to deliver on the expectations many have had for him since he was drafted.

As I wrote previously about Eifert, I expect 90+ targets for him. This number was based on the fact that the less talented receiver Jermaine Gresham saw 78 targets last year and Gresham and Eifert combined for 119 in 2013 in a more pass happy offense where the receivers were healthy. With the health of the Bengals receivers back again and Eifert uncontested as the primary tight end, 90 targets seems like a safe bet. That would have put him in the top ten targeted tight ends last season. Given Eifert’s athleticism and the pass catching ability he has flashed in limited action thus far in his career, I’m willing to bet that leads to a breakout season. That makes him a fantastic bargain. If you wait at TE, Eifert should be the number one guy you target.