Ladies and gentlemen. The 2015 fantasy football draft season has arrived, and in case you missed it we've been putting out tons of great fantasy football rankings & analysis for weeks. Over the next few days, we'll finish releasing our tiered fantasy football PPR rankings. Grouping players into different tiers is a great way to prepare for your drafts -- it allows you to easily compare which players to draft for your teams, and at what point in the draft.

Below you will find our tiered tight end PPR rankings for the 2015 season, along with analysis by Zach Wilkins. These staff consensus PPR rankings take the average ranks of a few lead columnists at RotoBaller, and chunk out the players out into color-coded tiers so you can easily group players to target on draft day. Let's get to it.

Editor's note: Be sure to check out our Who To Draft Tool, a free player comparison tool which can help you make decisions on who to draft. Need to choose between a few players? Not sure who to pick next? Compare any two NFL players and see which is recommended for your drafts.

Tiered PPR Tight End Rankings - 2015 Fantasy Football

Tight End (TE) Rankings Analysis

By Zach Wilkins (@LopsidedTrades)

Probably the biggest overall mover in my tight end rankings over the past month (outside of movers due to injuries/suspensions) is Tyler Eifert. I originally had him around TE15, but I’ve now got him at TE8. I think he can be a Greg Olsen type player. He’s not the only reliable target in the Bengals offense, like Olsen is for the Panthers, but this offense will be a better as a whole leading to more scoring opportunities and a lot of targets. Eifert is the best late round TE available.

I’m still relatively high on Zach Ertz as well at TE6 compared to his TE9 consensus rank. In the eyes of many he took a hit when he got hurt with an injury similar to Arian Foster’s. He might miss the first week or two but I still think he can be a special player in another offense I really like. My big concern is whether this injury prevents him from showcasing any blocking improvements and keeps Celek on the field more. I’m willing to gamble on Ertz talent in that offense though.

Richard Rodgers is another TE on the rise for me after the Jordy Nelson injury. Somebody has to step up as the big target in the red zone, and I think Rodgers has a very real chance to do that. It’s far from a sure thing, which is why he is only TE12 for me, but as the starting TE in that offense I like his odds. It’s been awhile since Aaron Rodgers had a TE he could trust, but Jermichael Finley did finish as a top 5 TE in 2011. I’m not sure Richard Rodgers ceiling is that high, but it’s close.

On the negative side, I’m lower than the consensus on Jason Witten at TE10. He’s getting older, and hasn’t been as productive the past two years. He finished TE10 last year in standard scoring, and I don’t see any reason for that to improve. I think he does offer a little more PPR value, having never gone below his 64 catches last year in 11 seasons as a starter. In the end though, all good things must come to an end and Witten looks to be on the decline after a great run.

Another guy I’m low on is Dwayne Allen at TE17. He is definitely in a great offense, but he averaged just 30 yards per game last year, making him extremely touchdown dependent. He has to constantly compete against Coby Fleener for playing time and targets, which has led to me being unsure of who will have the bigger fantasy impact on a week-to-week basis. I think Allen is the better of the two, but we haven’t seen that lead to a big difference in playing time over Fleener just yet. That makes it hard for me to justify taking him as my TE1.

In PPR a couple other guys I like - Martellus Bennett. Following the injury to Kevin White I think Bennett is a safe bet for 80+ catches again. Don’t be afraid to take him shortly after Greg Olsen. I also think Jordan Reed has nice PPR value for as long as he is healthy. He is my PPR TE12. The Niles Paul loss was tough for the Redskins, but guarantees Reed a lot of playing time until if/when he gets hurt. He was still catching a lot of balls when on the field last year, I don’t expect that to change.

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