One of the most difficult - and sometimes impossible - tasks for any fantasy owner during the offseason is figuring out what players have league-winning upside. Certainly, the Christian McCaffrey's and Dalvin Cook's of the world come immediately to mind, but we need some pretty good luck in a traditional snake draft to land either one of those players.

To answer this "league-winner" question better, I decided to take a position-by-position look at each player that enjoyed rarified air over the last six seasons. By using the best of the best in each position group over a six-year period as the basis for what is great versus elite, we should be able to create realistic parameters for what it takes to be a true fantasy difference-maker.

There will invariably be repeat entries (as in certain players appearing multiple times on the list). It is also OK to view this series of articles as something of a correlational study or a series of interesting facts, but there's more value in this kind of analysis than that. My top priority is trying to establish what benchmarks fantasy owners need to shoot for at each position, especially considering the different styles of players that exist in the game.

Each position will be divided into multiple groups for the express purpose of challenging how you currently think about the position (and its upside). The "Rk" column to the left of each player's name is where he finished among his peers over the six years of this study. (For example, Darren Waller's 2020 season ranked fourth among all tight ends in the last six years.) Tight ends were split into the following groups:

Chain Movers - 11.4 YPC or lower
Field Stretchers - 11.5 YPC or higher

Take note that a particular tight end may appear in both tables. While that may not seem ideal, tight ends are often asked to assume different roles from one season to the next. For example, tight ends need to run shorter routes some years due to the limitations of the offensive line, while others get the opportunity to run deeper routes some years because his team acquired a quarterback who is unafraid to make a tight-window throw 20-25 yards down the field. I also acknowledge that while some of the observations I will make in this four-part series are somewhat obvious, they often bear repeating.

Below each table will be another table that summarizes the averages of each group as well as the group minimum and maximum. The cutoff at receiver for this study was 150 fantasy points (top 53 performances in the last six years).

* The touchdown average for the 53 tight ends over the last six seasons to score at least 150 fantasy points was 6.6.

* Taken one step further, 35 of the 50 tight ends (70 percent) to score at least six touchdowns over any of the last six years - regardless of how much they produced in any other receiving category - made the list.

* There are only nine instances of a tight end scoring double-digit TDs. Kelce is responsible for only two of them.

* The lowest target total for a top 10 tight end from 2015-20 was Jordan Reed with 114 in 2015. The lowest YPC for a tight over that same span was 10. The next lowest was 10.9.

* The average age of the 53 tight ends that qualified for this study is 27.8. Sixteen players were 30 or older. With six entries, tight ends in their age-31 season posted the third-highest total of 150-point fantasy performances - including two top-10 and four top-20 finishes.

* "Chain movers" caught only two percent more of their targets than the "field stretchers" did. The latter group enjoyed an advantage of nearly 214 yards on the former.

How can this help us for moving forward?

Five of the top seven and 11 of the top 15 finishers at tight end averaged at least 11.5 yards per catch.

This is somewhat notable considering the field-stretching tight ends had three fewer entries than the possession group did. There is no question this data is heavily affected by the six top-27 appearances from Kelce and two apiece from Kittle and Gronkowski.

Age is just a number at tight end … to a point.

The 30-and-over crowd is represented well with 30 percent of the entries. As I alluded to earlier, they are not just squeaking past the 150-point mark either. However, it appears 32 is about the extent fantasy owners should push their luck on tight ends who make their living downfield - no 33-or-over tight end (of the 53) averaged more than 11.1 YPC.

The path to a potential league-winner type at tight end begins at six touchdowns.

When we consider that 70 percent of the tight ends to amass at least six touchdowns over the last six seasons have scored 150 fantasy points, it would appear as if that is a good place to start when choosing between options at the position. Twelve tight ends in all scored at least six touchdowns last year and seven made this list. Of the seven to make the list, only Gesicki (last year's TE7) finished outside the top 40 in this study.

Quarterbacks | Running Backs | Wide Receivers | Tight Ends