Welcome back everyone to a new season of Daily Fantasy Football at DraftKings. I’ll be here every Thursday to provide recommendations for Tight Ends for your weekly lineup. This week is the perfect week to take a dip into the Daily Fantasy pool because DraftKings has a great contest in the DraftKings – NFL $100K Play-Action [$10,000 to 1st] where you can win $10,000 for a $2 investment. Full contest details are at the end of the column.

This is a great week to check out DraftKings and pick up a new way to play fantasy football and do some matchup research for your season-long league.

DraftKings Tight End Picks

If you’ve never played on DraftKings before, you can get a deposit bonus by signing up. And there are different options to pick from at DraftKings for any skill level.

Week 1 is perhaps the toughest week to figure out which matchups are the best and which to avoid as we don’t have any 2014 matchup data to rely on for this week. We’ll need to look at last season and adjust for any of the personnel additions and subtractions.

Finally, a gentle reminder on the scoring for Tight Ends – this is a PPR site so remember that when selecting players. The full system for scoring for Tight Ends is at the end of this column.

Tight Ends can also be used in the flex position at DraftKings. However, with the entire world of RBs and WRs at your disposal, it would be unlikely you’d have to head to the TEs to pick up a flex play. Jimmy Graham is always in play as a flex option.

Let’s take a look at a couple of options at each price point. For those who are new to the column, I’ll generally look at a couple of options in each pricing tier broken out based on the socioeconomic status of 1970s sitcom families. And I’ll always cover Jimmy Graham.

I’ll mention Football Outsiders a lot over the season – the passes per game and yards per game stats I use are from Football Outsiders. Here is the link to Football Outsiders’ 2013 stats. FO will update stats for 2014 here once Week 1 is in the books.

The Graham Tier

Jimmy Graham | Saints | $7,200 Graham heads on the road to Atlanta for Week 1. He picked up TDs in each of his two matchups with the Falcons last year. The Falcons were 21st last year against the TE. The Falcons upgraded their defensive line, but bring back a pretty similar LB and DB corps. His matchup is pretty favorable ,and he can be your security blanket if you can find cheaper options at other positions.

The Jeffersons

Jordan Cameron | Browns | $5,000 – Not much to recommend here as the high priced options just don’t show a ton of value for me. Cameron has a bit of value in my eyes as he’s going to be the focal point of the Browns’ “offense.” He faces a Steelers team that was middle of the pack against the TE last year.

All in the Family

Dennis Pitta | Ravens | $4,400 – Gary Kubiak is the new OC in Baltimore and he brings with him a TE-friendly offense. Joe Flacco really doesn’t have any other passing game options other than Torrey Smith. Pitta should be in line for the second-most looks in the passing game and could be in line for a solid game. It isn’t the best matchup (the Bengals were fourth against TEs last season), but the Ravens won’t have much of a running game so they’ll need to get points somewhere.

Heath Miller | Steelers | $4,100 – One of my favorite TE sleepers this year is Miller as he’s now two years away from his ACL surgery and looks to be the number one red zone target in this offense. The Browns were a middling team against TEs last year and they lost T.J. Ward so they could be exposed.

I’d stay away from Zach Ertz (Eagles – $4,100) as he’s still sharing time with Brent Celek.

Good Times

This is where you will find value early in the season as prices won’t have adjusted to offseason moves, returns to health or changes in responsibility.

Travis Kelce | Chiefs | $3,200 – He’s my guy this year. He’s my pick to go all Julius Thomas on everyone this year. Kelce missed all of last season with knee issues. After microfracture surgery it looks like he’s fully healthy as he showed in the preseason. The Chiefs have no WRs to speak of on their roster outside of Dwayne Bowe, and he’s not playing this week. Kelce is my play at TE this week.

Beyond Kelce, you can find a couple of other interesting starters who are new to the role this year. All of these guys are also options with some upside for a minimum salary. That said I’d go Kelce for $200 more.

These new starters include Levine Toilolo (Falcons – $3,000), Richard Rodgers (Packers – $3,000), Jacob Tamme (Broncos – $3,000) with Wes Welker out, and John Carlson (Cardinals – $3,000). Each will likely get more looks than you might think and should be monitored going forward but don’t have the upside the Kelce has.

Garrett Graham (Texans – $3,200) is another intriguing option as he’s going to be in a similar offensive system to the Patriots’ one and he’ll likely play the Gronkowski role in that scheme.

I’d stay away from Ladarius Green (Chargers – $3,200) as he is also “splitting time” at this point with Antonio Gates.

Good luck in Week 1!

Contest Details

DraftKings – NFL $100K Play-Action [$10,000 to 1st]

– $100,000 prize pool.
– $2 entry fee. Entry is free with your first deposit.
– $10,000 1st Place prize.
– Top 11,500 are paid.
– Starts on Sunday, September, 7th at 1:00 EST.
– Salary Cap Style Drafting. $50,000 to select 9 spots. 8 players and 1 defense.
– Roster Format: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 Defense.
– First time depositors at DraftKings receive a 100% bonus up to $600

DraftKings Tight End Scoring System

10 Receiving Yards = +1PT (+0.1PT per yard is awarded)
Reception = +1PT
Receiving TD = +6PTs
100+ Yard Receiving Game = +3PTs
Fumble Lost = -1PT
2 Point Conversion (Pass, Run, or Catch) = +2PTs
Offensive Fumble Recovery TD = +6PTs

The full DraftKings scoring system is here.