the " never again " list

[Tom Kessenich]

Both Graham & Gronk battled injuries most of last season as well -- Gronk's were minor, but there were signs of Graham being injury prone in both of his previous seasons.

Fair enough. I don't know of anyone who predicted the developments both have gone through this season but we can move on from that. I'll simply reiterate that prior to Gronk's injury and Graham's baffling month-long current slump both were justifying their draft positions in my opinion, especially when you factor in the complete train wreck the TE position has been. One thing I would expect everyone would agree on is both are elite talents. Because of that, both will be high on my list of second/third round targets next season. I very much want to get one of them as my TE next season if possible.

[CALI CARTEL]

Don't get me wrong Tom, I had Gronk/Graham as early 2nd round values and don't think that was wrong at all. My problem was I thought the mid-round TE's were the value point, so my teams were littered with Hernandez's & Jermichael's -- have Jermichael on my PT team, but have used Greg Olsen probably 11/15 weeks so far.

I view Graham/Gronk as the "worst case scenario" early on -- hell yes they give you a huge boost at the TE position, but I've seen enough depth at that position with the new NFL passing love, that it's shown me that it's still way more important to get depth at RB & WR or a big early QB. Didn't go after any Grahams, but had Gronk on a couple of teams, NONE of them were any good (one would've snuck into the OL playoffs had Gronk not got hurt), my lack of depth at RB/WR losing that 2nd round pick was too much for Gronk to make up. My best OL team had a TE trio of Martellus/Celek/Keller most of the year (drafted 9 straight RB/WR to start the draft, had Roethlisberger/Rivers at QB, added Locker mid-year).

[Tom Kessenich]

I understand and see your point. There are a million ways to skin a cat in this game. I think we all know that. But one thing I do believe in is that the more elite talents you have on your roster the better your chances will be to win. With so much depth at WR this season and so little at RB, I think that made Graham and Gronk extremely valuable going into the season. Had circumstances no one (that I know of anyway) predicted occurred, I think Gronk and Graham owners would have no complaints at all about the selections they made with either players.

Looking ahead to next season, WR and QB look to be quite deep and RB has more first-round options than this season had so the elite TEs could be nice targets once again. As I said, I will be aggressively pursuing Gronk and Graham as late-second, early-third round picks. I do not expect a repeat of this season where Gronk suffered a major injury and the Saints oddly decided not throwing the ball to Jimmy Graham gave them their best opportunity to win games.