Rest Of Season Top 25 Tight End Rankings, Week 4

The Elites

Had it right in the pre-season. Tried to get cute the first couple of weeks and do some promoting, but these are the guys that I trust. 

• • Travis Kelce has the 11th most targets in the league and the 7th most receptions. He’s elite and in the best (ok, 4th best by the numbers, but you know what I mean) offense in football, no worries. 
  • After a minor injury and a precautionary week off, it sounds like Kittle is ready to return. 

So Close

These 3 are bumping up against the elite tier, but I’m making the call and splitting them off from the lead dogs. 

• Waller had his worst game in the last year with the Patriots clearly trying to remove him from the game. He’ll be fine and I did consider leaving him up in the elite tier.
• Mark Andrews had 8 targets, but only brought in 3 of them for catches. He dropped a touchdown that would’ve saved his day and put a couple of would be tough catches on the ground. Lamar’s accuracy issues against the Chiefs were a problem for the whole offense, and I look for them to rebound against the WFT. 
• Zach Ertz hasn’t necessarily earned this spot by his performance this year, but his track record speaks for itself. With the Goedert injury, Ertz moves up a spot and hangs around in the 2nd tier as we’ve seen what kind of numbers he can post when he’s the lone/primary TE.

Pretty…Pretty Good

These guys have made it clear they are going to be part of the offensive scheme, and I wouldn’t be dropping anyone in this group from your roster. 

• Noah Fant would be in the tier above if he had a more set QB situation. He’s a stud in the making though.
• Tyler Higbee’s total points are buoyed by his massive 3 TD week 2, but he has that kind of upside. The downside, there are a lot of options for the Rams, and he’s still splitting snaps and targets with Gerald Everett. 
• I don’t love the drop in Mike Gesicki’s snap % from 73 to 55 and then down to 49% in week 3. Something to monitor, but Gesicki is clearly the receiving TE and running out of the slot a good bit when he is in there. 
• Jonnu had 8 targets in week 3. The absence of A.J. Brown is certainly helping boost the other TEN receiving options, but until that happens, Jonnu has been 1st or 2nd in targets for the Titans every week. 
• Hunter Henry has done nothing wrong (targets, snap %, yardage) except that he hasn’t found the end zone. While I’d normally say there’s a case for pro-(re)gression, he is still facing a potential QB swap and then probably another QB swap back to Herbert down the line. 

Best of the Rest

I like all these guys for various reasons, but I also don’t trust them for various reasons. Stream them wisely and you’ll have yourself a combo TE1. 

• Maybe there’s an argument for T.J. Hockenson to move up this list, but it’s a guy with one career game over 65 yards. Plus, that note from last week about Brandon Pettigrew…
• Evan Engram, I had much higher hopes for you, but the Judge/Garrett combo has a trash offense and clearly isn’t as favorable to the TE as the former Schurmur/Schula scheme. Still a great TE talent and he’s getting targets, but I’m pushing Engram down until he shows me something in this new offense. 
• Hayden Hurst has back to back weeks with touchdowns, granted week 3 was 1 reception for 1 yard and a TD. However, I still think he’s a pretty solid TE in a powerful (1st half of the game) offense. Atlanta is 2nd in first half points, but 22nd in second half points this season, crazy. 
• Schultzy (“You scared of the natives?” Go watch Letterkenny, okay back on track). Dalton has been better than expected with 16 targets in the last 2 weeks. He’s still only playing about 2/3 of the snaps though and any given week, TDs could be anywhere on this offense, but it’s a good offense.
• Logan Thomas…Snap % check. Targets, check. Doesn’t play for the WFT, ah crap. Just not many scores for this offense. What can you say, except, at least it’s not the Jets. 

Signs of Life?

• Okay, there still isn’t any sign of life for Chris Herndon, but one has to think Gase will be gone soon, right? Things can only get better then. Just let me have this, Kahale is still on the IR. 
• Jimmy G showing signs of life with the Nick Foles swap. 6 receptions on 9 targets for 60 yards and 2 scores in week 3. Foles has shown a propensity for utilizing the TE, so, not a bad place to take a shot on a TE popping.
• 6 for 48 isn’t exactly worth writing home about for Gronk, but maybe he’s starting to get his football legs back. Or maybe it’s just b/c they lost one of their top WRs…but either way, possible streaming option until Godwin comes back.  

The Injury Duo

Both potentially worth stashing if you have the roster spots and/or the record to support waiting on a tight end.

So, You’re Saying There’s A Chance

Yes, I do believe there’s a chance these guys could be useful and maybe move up from this area, but I’m not bought in yet. 

• Mo seems to have a connection with Rivers and even with Jack Doyle back, seemed to have a role in the offense. However, he’s splitting snaps with Doyle and Noah Togiai (blocking) at the TE position, and the Colts are likely the most game script dependent offense in the NFL right now. 
• Austin Hooper has the snap %, but that’s been about it. Yet to have more than 4 targets any game this season and with the up and down nature of the Browns, who knows when you’ll want to start Hooper. They paid him, so, still holding out some hope they figure out how to use him, but that grows dimmer each passing week. 
• Jordan Akins is the more athletic, healthy pass catcher for the Texans, but I’m still not overly excited about him. Come on back healthy Kahale Warring. 
• Irv Smith Jr. is still splitting time with Mr. Catch and Fall himself, Kyle Rudolph, for some reason. Love the talent, but outside of dynasty leagues, I’m not overly excited at his prospects in the current Vikings offense. 
• Russel Wilson is awesome and they’re about to play the Dolphins. Seems like enough to mention G-Reg at the end of this list. Happy hunting for week 4! 

Deep leagues or keeping an eye on Robert Tonyan. TDs in back to back games. May only be an adjustment while Davante is out, but worth monitoring.