Survivor I - Jeb Putzier Commentary

NOTE: this draft was completed on 7/24

Recent Stats

YR	REC	RECYD	RECTD	FPT	RANK
2003	4	34	0	3.4	78
2004	36	572	2	69.2	12

Positives - Putzier put up 36/572/2 last season. That’s not stellar, but was career highs for Putzier and did put him in the top 12 TEs. The Broncos seemed to really value Putzier by matching the Jet’s offer in the off-season in order to retain him. The Broncos passing attack is a good one ranking in the top ten in both passing yards and passing TDs. Putzier has nothing but upside as far as TDs go having ONLY 2 last season. He finished 12th in receptions for TEs and, for what it’s worth, the Denver GM has stated that Putzier could get more balls thrown his way this season and, as such, “is going to catch a lot of balls” this year.

Negatives - Putzier did not receive a lot of red zone targets last season and you’d like to see a lot more TD production. The acquisition of Stephen Alexander (who actually caught more passes than Putzier while playing at Detroit last year) could potentially cut into Putzier’s production if it gets into a TEBC situation in Denver.

Draft Strategy - Starting TEs seemed to be flying off the board more quickly in this draft than is typical of other more standard drafts – probably because of the 1 pt. per reception. As such, the value pick at this point was Putzier. He was the best TE left on the board and I felt that I had better go ahead and take him now with his touted “sleeper” potential knowing that I needed two more TEs to utilize a TEBC strategy in light of the fact that I did not have one of the TE studs.