Dustin Keller

In his fourth year in the league, Keller turned in a career season, leading the Jets with 65 receptions for 815 yards and five touchdowns. He benefited from a lackluster wideout corps, garnering a team-high 115 targets. Keller’s rapport with quarterback Mark Sanchez, though, continues to be a work in progress as Keller caught just 56.5 percent of his targets, 28th among qualified tight ends. That led to inconsistency as he posted five games of less than 40 yards receiving. What’s more, his 20 red-zone targets and nine targets inside the 10-yard line (third among tight ends) suggest he should have found the end zone more often. His goal-line numbers might not improve this season, depending on how the Jets use Tim Tebow. The addition of rookie wideout Stephen Hill, though, could help open up the middle of the field for Keller to operate. Although he’s small for a tight end at 6-2, his size also allows him to get down field with good speed (12 receptions of 20-plus yards last year).

At 6-2, 250, Keller shows excellent speed to get open downfield and uses his quickness to make himself an easy target. After the catch he shows good ability to break tackles and get extra yardage after contact. Those skills led to 11 catches of 20-plus yards last season, tied for fourth most at the position. One area in need of improvement, however, is his hands. Keller dropped seven passes last season, none more important than an end-zone drop Week 16 in Chicago. Quarterback Mark Sanchez also became more comfortable with his wide receivers as the year went on, and Keller’s role shrank. In the first five games, Keller was targeted nine times in the red zone, including seven times inside the 10, and scored five touchdowns. He never made it into the end zone again, receiving red-zone targets in just three of the final 11 games. As Keller showed early last year, he has plenty upside, but he’ll need to remain a significant part of the team’s attack. With Santonio Holmes' return, plus the additions of Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason, Keller's role is a little cloudy, but he's still an important piece of the puzzle.

Keller’s outstanding postseason performance in which he scored in all three Jets games might make him a bit overvalued heading into the 2010 season. The Jets remain a run-first team and have a number of receiving options after acquiring Braylon Edwards last year and Santonio Holmes (who will serve a four-game suspension) during the offseason.

While the development of Mark Sanchez is the likely culprit, it’s worth noting that Keller’s yards per target dropped in his sophomore season from 6.9 to 6.4 yards, neither of which is a decent number. And for the second year in a row his production tailed off late in the season when he caught just nine passes in the final five weeks. Also, while Keller was targeted 11 times in the red zone, he scored only twice. Sanchez’s continued development will help Keller, but probably not enough to make him a weekly fantasy starter unless the team gives him more looks from in close.

Keller’s another tight end who fits the “better receiver than blocker” mold, which is perfect for fantasy purposes. His production predictably tailed off in tandem with the Jets’ demise as he only had 76 total receiving yards over the last four games and didn’t find the end zone after Week 10. Morever, Keller will be playing with an inexperienced quarterback at the helm – either Mark Sanchez or Kellen Clemens – limiting some of his upside in 2009. It’s worth noting that young quarterbacks often use the tight end as a security blanket, so an increase in catches and yards would not be a surprise.

He's a tight end for our purposes but an H-back in reality, which is a cute way to say that Keller is more receiver than blocker at this point in the game. The Jets have too many options at tight end for anyone to go of in 2008, but Keller should become a nice Dallas Clark clone in a couple of years. Clip and save.