A former first round draft pick, Greg Olsen, is still only 28 years of age and just experienced a career season for the Carolina Panthers. Based on that description you would think he would be a hot commodity entering the 2013 fantasy football season, but that is far from the case.

After being unable to reach his potential in four seasons with the Chicago Bears, he has developed nicely with Cam Newton and his career is trending upwards. In 2012, Olsen set career highs in receptions, receiving yards and yards-per-reception.

Newton has averaged over 3900 passing yards in his first two seasons and should be expected to near that mark once again. The Panthers haven’t exactly loaded up the receiving corps for their franchise passer either, which leads me to designate Olsen as a safe bet to receive opportunity similar to last season’s 104 targets. In terms of scoring, Olsen has recorded at least five touchdowns in each of the last five seasons, which is respectable, but also allows room for improvement.

Let’s take a look at how Olsen fared among fellow tight ends last season in terms of fantasy football:

Olsen’s 114 points, which are easily replicable, earned him a 6th place finish at the position. For a historical perspective, 114 points would have merited an average positional rank of 7.2 over the past five seasons. One of the players that finished ahead of him in 2012, Heath Miller, is recovering from a torn ACL. Brandon Myers has switched teams and the Bengals drafted Tyler Eifert in the first round, which doesn’t exactly bode well for Jermaine Gresham’s future. I don’t envision an improvement for any of those three players and prefer Olsen over all of them.

The price tag for Olsen, which you will notice below, is quite attractive as it currently stands; he may actually be the player I have drafted most frequently in either mock drafts or draftmasters this offseason.

As I mentioned earlier, I consider Olsen to be a safe bet to at least match last year’s production. His current ADP places him in the 10th round as the 10th tight end off of the board. I rank him in a tier alongside Dennis Pitta and Kyle Rudolph – two players that are being drafted more than two rounds earlier than Olsen. At the season’s end, you should be perfectly content with Olsen’s performance and who knows, maybe he’ll take another step forward alongside his quarterback. It also doesn’t hurt that he hasn’t missed a game in the past five seasons. All in all, if you either miss out or do not want to pay the price for one of the high-end options, then Greg Olsen may be the guy to target as your starting tight end for 2013 fantasy football season.