“Touchdown! Mad Maxx Williams!!” This is a phrase you ought to get used to hearing.

Maxx Williams was the No. 1 tight end in the 2015 NFL Draft – head and shoulders above all the rest. Baltimore was one of the best landing spots he could’ve asked for. The Ravens are in need of pass-catchers after moving on from Torrey Smith and they’re still reeling from Dennis Pitta’s bum hip. Enter GM Ozzie Newsome, who, once again, proved himself to be one of the best in the NFL at working the draft.

Baltimore had clear deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball and Ozzie addressed offensive-skill-position needs in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th rounds by taking Breshad Perriman, Maxx Williams, Javorious “Buck” Allen, Nick Boyle, and Darren Waller.

Joe Flacco will, of course, take some deep shots to former UCF Knight Breshad Perriman and old man longtime veteran Steve Smith is likely to pull down 80 catches and 5 or 6 TDs. However, there should be plenty of targets and space in the middle of the field for Mad Maxx to do some serious damage.

Williams is not an insane athlete such as Eric Ebron, but he’s got great hands and some spectacular body control that makes him a threat all over the field but also in the chaos of the red zone. He has some work to do in his blocking, but he’s willing and mostly able (he’ll need to add some bulk to his frame but he’s only 20 years old) as a blocker so you don’t have to take him on the field in run-situations.

Fortunately for Mad Maxx and his future fantasy owners, tight ends such as Heath Miller, Dennis Pitta, and Jordan Cameron have gone off at times in the AFC North. Additionally, New Ravens OC Mark Trestman’s offensive scheme helped Martellus Bennett – who was a longtime “if only he could put it all together” guy – reach career highs in yardage and touchdowns during the 2013 and 2014 seasons when he served as head coach in Chicago.

There are only two things that majorly concern me about Williams’ fantasy value:

1) The learning curve for tight ends at the NFL level is steep. Can you think of the last rookie tight end to blow up? It might take you a minute to mull that one over. The last two tight ends to be extremely impactful as rookies were Aaron Hernandez (gulp) and the legendary Rob Gronkowski in 2010 (Hernandez and Gronk put up 45/563/6 and 42/546/10, respectively). Rookie tight ends tend to get swallowed up in the depths of fantasy dredges faster than a six pack of Natty Light in front of Gronk. There’s a lot more Tyler Eifert and Zach Ertz than there are Gronks and Jeremy Shockeys. At RosterWatch, the philosophy has always been that TE is the second-hardest NFL position to “learn” besides quarterback. Rookie TEs heads swim all season from having to go from meeting room to meeting room to learn what is going on with the receivers, the linemen and the quarterbacks on top of their own TE room. It’s a task.

2) Dennis Pitta. Plain and simple. Pitta might not ever regain form (and in actuality he only had one borderline-monster fantasy season) but that hip of his might be his undoing as it was for apex athlete Bo Jackson. But if he is to play in 2015, he has the veteran-edge over Williams along with Joe Flacco’s trust. Crockett Gilmore is a bit of a threat for snaps as well but not a big one as the two could be in a lot of two tight end sets. One sleeper to watch out for is former Delaware tight end Nick Boyle who RosterWatch, like Gillmore the year previous, saw up close and personal at the Senior Bowl. Boyle’s not a great athlete but he can be a punishing blocker. If history were to repeat itself, Ed Dickson was supposed to be the Ravens major pass-catching tight end while Pitta was a secondary figure when drafted, and we can see how that worked out.

Fantasy and Dynasty Outlook

Maxx Williams is an extremely intriguing Dynasty commodity. In redraft leagues he has the possibility to break out into the TE1 stratosphere as a rookie but that’s not likely. I wouldn’t put too much redraft league draft capital in him until the later rounds but he is a must own to me in Dynasty. I would wager to say he’s going to have an extremely low cost in Daily Fantasy leagues but could be quite a bargain by mid-season. Make no mistake, we’ll be talking about Mad Maxx as a major fantasy player by 2016.