Haven't really heard anyone talk about him. Anyone else think he bounces back in a big way?

yes

Of course Gates is a top 3 TE always has been. I see Rivers & AG hooking up alot this year.

Stud. Period.

lol Hope so. I just got him at the end of the 4th.

Witten and Gonzo were gone and in an 8 starter league, I figured I'd have an edge with that kind of firepower.

He'll out-produce Gonzo without a doubt....hugely. Not sure if I'd be grabbing a TE in the 4th round though.

In 9 player leagues I wouldn't.

But, I'm in a league where you start a QB, 1-3 RBs or WRs for a total of 4, a TE, D and K. So only 4 WR/RBs instead of the usual 5.

Therefore, everyone is going to have better starters.

For me it is:

Witten/Gates/Tony G. or wait.

Clark/Olsen/Daniels/Cooley/Winslow all the have the upside so my strategy is to wait this year.

Most important thing is that he stays healthy.

Had a sub-par season by Antonio Gates' standards.

I think it'll be Witten, Clark (so underrated and his connection with Petyon in training camp has been dubbed "scary"), Gates, Gonzo

I agree with this particularly in PPR leagues. Witten is the best this year by a fairly wide margin in PPR and I like Clark at #2. Gates takes a hit in PPR....not much, but a little.

I think this will be the year Gates signifcantly drops off. IMO he and LT are at the same points in their careers. So, I guess if u dont think LT is done (which I think he is) than u also think Gates will do well. I think the injuries have caught up to him, plus hes not the only receiving threat in that offense as he was once before. Id avoid, since the cost is too high.

LT has alot more wear and tear than Gates. Alot. Also, I am not sure Gates can have a significant drop in production considering he only caught 60 balls for 700 yards last year...he can't drop very far. Anyway, the one point I do agree with is that his draft price is too high. I take a solid WR2 or RB2 well before Gates.

This man is such an incredible athlete.

Well he certainly had a monster night today.

Yep. There is no doubt that he is the best receiving TE in football. Fantasy he is top 3 for sure. I would have picked him but I figured Witten would give me more consistent numbers as the Cowboys have NO other options, besides RBs. Luckily I got Celek also, late. Celek is an amazing Flex play as I see him having at least 70 yards and a possible TD almost every week.

gotta love SD's pass offense

no D + no running game = career years for rivers/vjax/gates etc if that is possible given last years big numbers

funny thing is gates always seem to be moving so slow but yet next thing you know he is busting off these big plays... that guy is something else...

Fantasy king.

Well for the first time all season I dn't need a big game out of Gates he gives me one. Damn H2H. I hope the Chargers keep throwing the ball a ton.

This is getting to a level of ridiculousness with Gates now. This team has been up against the softest defenses pretty much the entire first half. Outside of 2 garbage time TD"s when they were way behind in Pittsburgh Sunday night he's been a total bust. Week after week I read "This will be the game he busts out" and week after week I check his box score and see 3 catches 44 yards. Today's game. Rivers was looking at Floyd and Jackson deep all day. The targets Gates actually get were Rivers worst throws. I've watched guys like Celek and Vernon among a few others snatched and used against me to devestating effect. Should we remain patient or just give in to the fact guy is not going to get the catches and TD's we expected and start selling high while people are slow to realize he isn't have a great fantasy season?

Week 9 will be the week he busts out....Watch....Really....Gates is no longer the best receiver on his team and it's natural progression for a young QB as he matures and becomes more confident to be able to get the ball more vertical down the field to his WRs (if they're any good) rather then settle for the easy dump offs to back and TEs. Gates is still a threat and mismatch and he'll have some nice days going forward as VJax is now the focus of defenses, but I don't think he approaches his 05-07 peak.....Lots of top TEs are suffering this year (Witten, Cooley, Olsen, Gonzo to a degree). TE just tend to be an inconsistent position....

Its depressing when my opponent has Kevin Boss and he outscores my Gates by 10. But I'm not worried, Gates is just too good to not produce almost every week, its just a matter of targets. And it would also help if LT could average more than 3 yds per carry to force linebackers to commit towards the line of scrimmage.

hes killing me. I benched v davis the last 2 weeks and he has destroyed gates in production.....thinking about going the other way now!

There were so many times where Gates would line up and run a short slant or something underneath, get 3 steps ahead of the guy covering him, only to have Rivers completely ignore him. If you watch Rivers today he was completely locked onto Jackson, which is understandable, but when the play broke down down he wouldn't progress to Gates and instead tried to force it long. I'm really hoping that Rivers starts looking his way a little more, but at least it's not a matter of Gates under performing, at least IMO.

I don't have the advantage of seeing firsthand River's pass progressions but that wouldn't shock me. Sometimes I think in the back of his mind he is trying to live up to Dree Brees, which is totally crazy maybe, but there has to be some whispers in San Diego that they wish they kept him over Rivers. So he tends to try and do his Brees immitation and has been looking deep to his version of Colston and Henderson. Gates has made some nice catches when he does actually get targetted and gotten some RAC but he seems to only look his way when behind. You expect big points when you have two weeks against the Chiefs and Raiders not less than 20 combined. Not giving up on his season as it would be suicidal to sell low when the law of averages suggest he will have a big last 8 games. But I am tired of getting beat in production by my opponents waiver add TE's.

Just trade one or the other. TE isn't that important of a position that you need 2 guys like Davis and Gates.

That may be true but if he wants to be like Brees, he would learn to spread the ball around mroe than just throwing to vjax. Brees takes what the defense gives him, he rarely forces anything. I also had floyd going in the game and I dont know what happened to him after the first drive when he has 64 yards.



easier said than done. Besides, its a keeper league.

Amen...

what the hell are you talking ???

529 yds rec in 7 games (75,57 avg)

In a Non PPR league that's not exactly giving you the value you likely paid for in the draft. PPR he is...average..but he should given who his team has played so far been putting up bigger numbers was my argument. And that average is about 20 yards or so lower if you take away the Pittsburgh game where the Steelers were playing prevent and he racked up his one big game. He's not the worst TE and not saying he sucks. Just be a disappointment given how bad the run was early and they were pass heavy in alot of games. Usually you would be excited to see the Chargers in the red zone cause you expected to see the seam or post routes. This year its been alot of outs, fades and screens to Sproles and LT down there.

I think he'll be better than this and would probably be a great buy low to a frustrated owner if you find one.

He's as good as Brees. Rivers is an elite qb in real quantifiables and in fantasy terms. Gates really hasn't produced like a beast tight end for a couple years. He's older and slower out there. He's definitely not the guy from 5 years ago. He can still post up though in the red zone. Tough to explain, but I've watched all of their games. He's got his pants hiked up and that glove holder belt thing on. He just looks sloppy and old to me. He'll still be a top 5 tight end, but the price tag was cheaper on guys like celek and Vernon.

I think it just goes to prove that spending a 4th or 5th round pick on an "elite" TE is equal almost to reaching on a closer in baseball. Just not a very consistent position you can rely on year to year. I might just start waiting to pick the 3rd tier or sleeper TE's in future drafts.

This post, FTW.....This is why you don't draft TEs high in drafts. Don't ever do it. Yes, some guys are great, but they're inconsistent as heck and you can probably get much more value getting one deeper in the draft or waiting and trading with a desperate owner later in the season. Someone will probably come in here and say how happy they are that they took Dallas Clark in the 5th round, but typically TEs are just inconsistent beasts. The top 3 TEs in everyone's draft books aren't in the top 5.....But sleepers like OD (until injury today), Vernon Davis, Celek and reclamation project Jeremy Shockey are rewarding managers for waiting.....

But you left out sleepers Greg Olsen, John Carlson, Kevin Boss, and Dustin Keller.

There's no full proof strategy here. Some early picks work out, some don't. This is like saying, "see this is why you draft WR in the first round, because I was able to get Ray Rice way later." That's great if you went Andre Johnson or Reggie Wayne and ended up with Ray Rice. Not good if you went Calvin Johnson and took Pierre Thomas and Kevin Smith.

Absolutely not. How many times does a TE carry your team to victory during the year? Once? RBs, WRs, and QBs are the core a fantasy football team. TEs, Defs, and Kickers are not. Also depth at these positions and the number played in a lineup make them much more valuable to a team....TE's not so much....Can you draft a TE high and get value? Of course. However, I would contend that's it's far better to save that pick on a RB, WR, or QB and try and get a TE later in the draft. Having a top flight TE is absolutely nice to have, but you don't need one to have a successful fantasy season. Much harder to be successful without a top flight RB or WR....

you guys complaining are ridiculous. The guys is on pace for 1195 yards, that would be an outstanding year for him, the only thing he is lacking is TD's and they are very tough to gauge when and where they will come but even still 1195 and 4-6 scores would be well worth what most of you put into him.

He has been better from a PPR standpoint but far from "average". In my PPR league he is still the #4 TE, even after this lower showing. If he goes on a small Touchdown spree then he will be right back where he belongs challenging for #1.

I attribute a lot of my success to the tight end position. I almost always take an elite TE in the 4th or 5th round, backing him up with a sleeper later. Most of the time, the sleeper doesn't pan out, which either (1) validates my early selection or (2) shows I don't know how to pick sleeper TE. I drafted Gates this year, and despite his "horrible" performance, he's still averaging around 10 points per game. Even a guy like Shiancoe, who is "on fire", isn't doing that. Tight End is the most underrated position in FF, in my opinion.

what ???

my league, no PPR

Davis 11.36
Clark 11.16
Daniels 10.36
Gates 9.19

Shockey 8.07

Cooley 6.46

Witten 5.83


this is one of the worst thread ever..ever

Fair enough, we'll just have to agree to disagree. First, I've never said Gates was having a horrible year, I think the original OP did, I was simply saying that Gates has become a standard, good TE. I think his year, by TE standards, is solid. I do have to say in standard league scoring that Gates is averaging 8.7 pts/gm after yesterday. I think the frustration comes from no TDs except for one game. In fact, if you take out his big game vs. the Steelers, he's averaging 6.1 pts in a standard league with no stinkers but no games more than 8 points. So he probably helped you win a game in week 4. Other than that, he's been pretty 'meh'. Witten's the same thing except without the big game yet (he'll have one). Gonzo's been a little more consistent with his 3 TDs spread out over 3 games, but nothing outstanding. Clark's been great (he's a bit of an anomaly b/c of the offense and the fact that he's an overgrown WR who can't block) and Cooley was a bust even before his injury. TE's are just too inconsistent for my tastes to draft one high, but if other folks think it's sound strategy, I wish them luck.

+1. Gates is a stud, and the TDs will come, just be patient.

Big game for Gates next week vs NY Midgets. Expect the middle of the field to be open most of the game for SD.

Not trying to pick on you, just continuing the conversation... for where you can draft Gates (4th round), your other options are likely to be wide receivers who are even more inconsistent... 4th round receivers in my draft this year were: Roy Williams, Dwayne Bowe, TJ Houshmandzadeh, Anquan Boldin, and Terrell Owens. That's a "who's who" of disappointment. You could always go RB, but this was a tough year for that, as well.

That's why I take a TE early... and follow him up with a sleeper TE later. No other 4th round pick nearly guarantees you a 2 or 3 point edge at the position. Even a #2 WR who puts up 1,100 yards and 8 TDs (good production) is barely getting 2 points a game on the waiver wire WR who gets 900 yards and 6 TDs.

Again, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. You're suggesting that taking a TE in the 4th in guaranteed to get you 2 or 3 point edge at a position is simply not true unless you drafted Dallas Clark that high, which isn't probable. Several things are wrong with this supposition. 1. I'm sure the guys drafting Witten or Cooley thought the same thing you did too. Nothing is guaranteed. 2. Gates isn't even delivering on your guarantee. Again some of this depends on scoring, but take out his week 4 game vs. Pitt and every other week Gates' production has been middling, so he's not even delivering the guaranteed 2 or 3 points a week you think he has. Finally, 3. I agree that being able to draft or "hit" on 4th rounders can be tenuous at best for any position. We've already covered that TE is no different than this, but again, how many times is a TE going to carry you to victory? I'd much rather try and hit on a WR2/RB2 or QB who may be able to carry my fantasy team then draft a TE who can be valuable but not a difference maker to fantasy success. I got Pierre Thomas and Marshawn Lynch in my two main leagues (trading Lynch for D. Jackson) in the 4th. I'd much rather have my draft picks then a Witten, Gates or Gonzo, the only guys that were most likely drafted that high, but if you'd prefer to bet on TE's then more power to you....

I got Gates in the 5th and I am not complaining. I am glad I didn't draft Witten.

anyone know anything about this foot injury that has him limited in practice on Wednesday? Just traded for this guy with Daniels down and had no idea of the injury. Is this something related to the lingering toe injury that eff'd him in '08? I can't catch a break with injuries this year so this wouldn't surprise me in the least

his days as the #1 TE are over.....ever since brees left SD, gates has been getting big games in spurts....i used to draft Gates during those years and he was a gem and a big-time difference maker.

I really wouldn't overreact about a player missing practice on Wednesday. All the cool players are doing it - only scrubs, rookies and offensive linemen seem to practice on Wed anymore.

I'm not trying to go off-topic here, but for the 3rd time, why do you insist on lumping Cooley into the same tier as Gates, Witten, and Dallas Clark? Only an idiot drafted him that high...

FWIW, I'd much rather have Gates than Marshawn Lynch, who is a good runner on a terrible team that doesn't get the lion's share of the load.

Yeah I feel you on that. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything that was going to affect performance.

can anyone who regularly watches the charges explain why this guy cant find the end zone? is it just bad luck? are defenses focusing too much on him, allowing vincent jackson to roam free?

It's more of a luck thing than anything else...There have been a handful of times where Gates has gotten tackled inside the 10 and 5 yard lines...The scores will come.