When to select a tight end in a fantasy football draft is a mystery that besets us all. While most select their starting tight end somewhere between the 5th and 7th round, it is possible to see one go as high as the top four rounds. Once a tight end is taken, they start to fall like dominos (usually a good barometer for how you’re doing in your draft: you draft for a position that no one’s drafted for yet, swarms of other teams immediately follow suit). Personally I tend to lean towards the former rather than the latter. When you only have one spot on the roster for any given position, I prefer to lock in the best possible talent.

But it fluctuates from season to season. If there is a surplus of quality tight ends (like this season, for instance), you can hold off for awhile and focus on other positions that customarily generate more fantasy points. If not, I typically recommend over-drafting one for your own sanity. Having that one glaring weak spot every Sunday really puts a damper on the festivities. It might seem trivial, but a deficient tight end is like a terrible technical supervisor on a film set: you can get by without a great one but aficionados in the field being portrayed will recognize your final product for the fraud that it is. Not to be too melodramatic, I’m sure someone, somewhere, a guy has won a fantasy season with Dante Rosario as his tight end, but it was probably in a four quarterback league or something equally preposterous.

This might all seem obvious, but it isn’t to the person who drafts Antonio Gates in the 3rd round or the guy who never starts the same tight end twice in the same season. If you’re either of these people (particularly the former), allow me 600 or so words to convince you that holding off on a TE this season is a gamble that could prove beneficial with some examples that will be available in the second half of your draft. Here are five sleepers that are rated well below what their potential ceiling warrants.

1)      Zack Miller

As unspectacular as Jason Campbell was in Washington (and why anyone had such high expectations for a quarterback taken in the twenties is beyond me), he delivered the ball to Cris Cooley on a fairly regular basis. With even worse receivers in Oakland and less time to get rid of the ball, it’s safe to assume Zack Miller will build on the flashes of brilliance he demonstrated in 2009.

2)      Kellen Winslow Jr.

Few tight ends — in fact none that I can recall — have come into the league with more promise. He had one banner season in 2007 when the Browns went 10-6 (note: this can also be said about Derek Anderson and Braylon Edwards, none of which are with the team today), otherwise, he hasn’t been in a situation to maximize his potential. In hindsight, the notion that he’s now regarded as a sleeper was unfathomable five years ago. But here we are, Winslow has fallen off the radar since being traded to Tampa and has a season of experience under his belt with an equally promising second year quarterback in Josh Freeman. Winslow’s talent is still there, he just needs to properly apply it on the field. With a comparatively stable environment in Tampa and an up and coming QB, this could easily be the year Winslow lives up to the 2005 hype.

3)      Kevin Boss

Referring to him as a sleeper is a bit of a stretch. Everyone’s known who he is since the Giants 2008 Superbowl run when he filled in for then overrated and highly insufferable first round pick, Jeremy Shockey. But the reality is his numbers have been steadily mediocre and he’s never been terribly visible in the fantasy world, so he still qualifies. Once the Giants realized they didn’t have a receiver over 6’3 last season, he began targeting Boss in the red zone and he managed to catch five touchdown passes in his last nine games. I expect that to be representative of his full 2010 season.

4)      Todd Heap

Aging and most definitely on the downslide, on the surface Heap possesses the worst professional traits of a fantasy football prospect. The difference now, of course, is for the first time in his playing days with the Ravens, Heap is accompanied with two receivers that could actually make a second NFL roster (Mason and Boldin). While this could be argued as a deterrent from drafting him (there are only so many passes to catch), the addition of Boldin will help keep the double team off of Heap and hopefully free up the passing lanes for a capable tight end, one whose numbers have never equivocated his talent.

5)      Brandon Pettigrew

This is a probable undrafted player in most fantasy leagues, and for good reason. Yes, he’s coming off a knee injury and yes, the Lions have acquired Tony Scheffler. But Pettigrew has developed a rapport with Matthew Stafford and his talent was enough to warrant being taken in the first round in 2009 (and the first tight end selected). You don’t necessarily want to hang all of your hopes on Pettigrew in 2010, but if for whatever reason you miss out on drafting a premiere tight end, Pettigrew is a sleeper you can acquire in one of the last few rounds as an option at the position that also has pro-bowl talent.