Do Yourselves a Favor and Pick up Kyle Rudolph Now

[Risky bidness]

I agree that Rudolph has a shot to be very productive fantasy player as early as next year. I was able to draft him at 5.7 (63rd overall) for my team in sig. I made quite a few moves to move up in my draft to grab other prospects and needs and never thought Rudolph would fall as far as he did.

I like what I've seen this year from him in the limited amount I've seen, but he looks real fluid and always thought he had great hands. This week Percy Harvin said Rudolph has the best hands he's ever seen as evidenced in the game last week on that sick TD grab.

[moneyballer]

I traded for Rudolph in one of my leagues earlier in the year and am glad I did. When he fully gets his chance, I think he is really going to put up some solid numbers. I watched a lot of his games at Notre Dame and he reminds me a lot of Gronkowski.

[skip]

I am typically not a fan of any offensive players that come out of Notre Dame. They seem to be a solid collegiate offense however it rarely has translated to quality talent in the NFL in recent years. I am hopeful that Rudolph exceeds my expectations. I traded for him earlier this week for virtually nothing (Branch for Burress/Rudolph) which was an incredible price.

[rfwojo]

I pickeup Rudolph (dropped A. Benn) after the team owner dropped him for the Washington Defense. If that one catch is an indication of what talent this kid has, looks like he will be a good Fantasy TE. I also pickup Moeaki (dropped A. Roberts) after his owner dropped him for Brandon Gibson. Our league assigns two points per catch for TE so that is why I have the interest. Now I have Finley, Rudolph, Moeaki and I picked up Julius Thomas TE Denver. Any feed back on J. Thomas???

[standard_variance]

if you dot have rudolph on your dynasty roster already then you are too late. The kid has already made lots of amazing plays already. Most everybody who actually watches football knows its just a matter of situation right now. Unless you are playing with novices he will be hard to pry from someone. I've tried buying low on Rudolph SO MANY TIMES without success.

[tra151]

I find this whole conversation alittle skewed. Unfortunately, it seems that elite te's have alot more to do with an elite passing game than anything else. Rudolph can be as good as gronk, or even better, but it won't really matter because gronk has Brady. Just like graham has Brees, gates has rivers, witten has romo, and so on. I like this kid, but I think the "if you don't have him yet, it's too late" talk might be alittle overblown. I just don't see him as a guy that's gonna lineup at wr at times and catch a ton of passes, and there likely won't be enough td passes from minn to make him in to the top 5 type guy that it sounds like you guys are talking about. That being said, I'm looking to trade gates, so I wouldn't mind having him behind graham, so I will be looking to grab him when the waiver wire opens back up.

[hamburglar]

i think tra151 raises some good points. that being said im cutting bait with jon baldwin this week if i can grab rudolph off waivers-- partly because i cant keep all those WR's but could keep an additional TE and partly because i agree rudolph has potential to be top 5...

i do agree with the original poster that if ponder and rudolph are truly "best buddies?" that goes a long way to determining a TEs opportunities... thats seemed to be a formula thats worked often in the past.

[standard_variance]

I find this whole conversation alittle skewed. Unfortunately, it seems that elite te's have alot more to do with an elite passing game than anything else. Rudolph can be as good as gronk, or even better, but it won't really matter because gronk has Brady. Just like graham has Brees, gates has rivers, witten has romo, and so on. I like this kid, but I think the "if you don't have him yet, it's too late" talk might be alittle overblown. I just don't see him as a guy that's gonna lineup at wr at times and catch a ton of passes, and there likely won't be enough td passes from minn to make him in to the top 5 type guy that it sounds like you guys are talking about. That being said, I'm looking to trade gates, so I wouldn't mind having him behind graham, so I will be looking to grab him when the waiver wire opens back up.

When i said "if you dont have him already then its too late" I meant that if you havent already bought him for close to nothing then at this point you will probably have to actually part with something of value. Maybe not significant value but enough to make you think twice. Rudolph may never be an elite TE....but he has the skills to be a solid one. And he HAS lined up at WR many times throughout the year...so Im not sure how you came to the conclusion that he isnt capable of lining up, or going to line-up at WR.

[Risky bidness]

This doesn't do anything for fantasy production but he's ranked 4th overall at the TE position by pro football focus in these categories:

Pass blocking
Run blocking
Penalty

While these stats don't produce fantasy points it a good sign that he has a chance to be on the field all the time. I think he has similarities to Gronk, but I think he's more of a Witten type, which if he ever got to their levels would be fine by me.

[melish1631]

I traded for Rudolph in one of my leagues earlier in the year and am glad I did. When he fully gets his chance, I think he is really going to put up some solid numbers. I watched a lot of his games at Notre Dame and he reminds me a lot of Gronkowski.

Fingers are crossed....ha! You mention Gronkowski in the same message as Rudolph - I actually made the 'Hmmmm!' sound out loud!!!

[hamburglar]

to the OP -- are you still as high on rudolph? i ended up grabbing him. but i recently read some of your criticisms of ponder and im wondering if he can still be as successful as you forecast with ponder at QB?

[ascherb]

If anything, Rudolph has been MORE productive with Joe Webb in at QB this year. I love Rudolph still, and regardless of whether it's Ponder or Webb, I think he's going to be great.

[Mangelo]

Rudolph the redzone reindeer