The 4th of July holiday has passed, and summer inches toward the far turn. The lamenting about the lack of football will be over soon.

For fantasy football owners, there’s no better time than now to start planning for the campaign ahead. Now, when it’s quiet, is an ideal time to start pondering your draft strategy. A good starting-off point is to ask yourself this question: How deep is each of the skill positions?

Your answer at tight end should be a material part of your draft blueprint. Two players — the Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski and the Saints’ Jimmy Graham — tower over the other options at the position. Gronkowski is the top-ranked tight end in PFW’s 2012 Fantasy Football Guide, with Graham slotted second.

If you want Gronkowski or Graham, you are going to have to move early. Both should be off the board by the end of Round Three in standard-sized leagues, and it’s reasonable to consider both a round earlier, in my view, particularly if picking near the end of the second stanza. I will definitely do so. If that sounds rich, consider that Gronkowski, who racked up 90 catches, 1,327 yards and 18 TDs (including one rushing), averaged 15.06 fantasy points a season ago on PFW’s metrics, more than every other qualifying wideout save for the Lions’ Calvin Johnson (16.51).