Can Vikings Tight End Kyle Rudolph Be Your Sleeper TE in 2015?

In most fantasy football leagues, managers only need to draft one tight end. Something tells me I’m going to struggle when deciding which one to target. Since writing a recent article on Travis Kelce and how he should continue to improve this year, I’ve found that I’m also in love with Kyle Rudolph. Not only do I love his upside, but I love the potential value that could present itself if he gets overlooked in drafts come August.

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Rudolph was drafted by the Vikings in 2011 with hopes that he would become an above average pass-catcher to go along with his immense size. Well, although Minnesota is still looking for everything to come together for the injury prone tight end, the size part is still there. Rudolph is about 6’6” and 260 lbs. As you can imagine, this makes him a terrifying red zone threat. I mean seriously, would you want to try to press and cover that thing linked above?

Between his foot injury in 2013 and his abdomen/groin injury in 2014, Rudolph played in just 17 games during the previous two seasons. His extended absences both years left him with a pretty colorful injury report. When healthy in those seasons he was not overly impressive either, catching only five touchdown passes and racking up 544 yards combined.

OK, so there are some negatives to Rudolph’s profile. However, we can find a lot of positives by looking back a couple of years to his healthy 2012 season. In an offense led mostly by Christian Ponder, the tight end received 93 targets in 16 games played (although Ponder was unable to target him in three of those games). With those targets, Rudolph notched nine touchdowns and 493 yards. Although not stifling, that’s more like the result I imagine Rudolph will produce after a healthy season. Throw in a more-than-competent quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, and Rudolph can easily bump his touchdown count up to 12 or more next year.

Obviously, the key here for Rudolph is to stay healthy. If he can, he will certainly rank high enough to be a starting TE in standard leagues. Bridgewater’s scrambling ability will result in more check down throws to Rudolph on third downs and goal line plays. I like the aforementioned Kelce a great deal more, but if I miss on him I’ll be happy to take a chance on Rudolph this year. He’s one of the hardest working players in the league, and although that doesn’t count for any fantasy points, it’s nice tiebreaker when considering which high-upside player to take with a late draft pick.

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