Earlier this offseason, it seemed as if the tight end position would be a rich one, deep with high-upside picks.

Then Tyler Eifert had surgery. And Delanie Walker got murked by an "exotic smashmouth" offense. Who knows what's up with Ladarius Green? Does he?

Basically, things got ugly real quick, and our tiers are as hard to decipher as ever.

Based on this, it seems obvious that Rob Gronkowski, Jordan Reed, and Greg Olsen are each their own, individual tier. It's a situation where you just have to ask whether the gap in production is worth the gap in cost before selecting those guys on draft day.

Our first multi-player tier contains the aforementioned Walker along with Coby Fleener and Travis Kelce. Those three players come within the span of seven picks, making this a legit hot spot where you might want to target a tight end. After that, we really just have free-floating players all the way until Jason Witten at pick 147.4.

When things are as strung out as this, you might want to look for players who could be in higher tiers than their ADP in order to target those players individually. Given his 27.22% target market share the final four weeks of last year, you may believe that Zach Ertz would be closer to the mini tier of Gary Barnidge and Julius Thomas than his ADP would dictate, giving you the leniency to take him in what would technically be a dead zone at the position. If you're not targeting one of the top six players at the position or holding off until the guys like Witten, Dwayne Allen, and Zach Miller are in play, then this is likely how you will have to attack tight end.