Rest Of Season Top 25 Tight End Rankings: Week 9

ELITE

With the loss of George Kittle for the rest of our fantasy football season, there is only one elite. Went over some Travis Kelce dynasty/2021 value in the most recent podcast with Donkey Teeth. Referenced one of my pre-season articles in regards to TE production and age. 

What’s Cooler Than Being Cool? 

ICE COLD, ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT. I generally hate one person tiers, and here we have 2 right off the bat. Andrews inconsistency and touchdown dependent nature has earned him a drop, and I don’t see anyone else that deserves to move up yet. 

• Darren Waller is as cool as the other side of the pillow. The only other TE with a points per game over 13. Waller has the targets, the snaps, the yards, and the scores to earn his own tier. 

Pretty…Pretty Good

One has to feel pretty…pretty good if you’re rolling out one of these options. 

• Mark Andrews hasn’t really dropped in the overall rankings, but he’s dropped a tier. He’s still a great red zone threat for the Ravens/LJax, but he’s fallen to 7th in RZ targets (per Pro-Football Reference). Still only a couple guys I’d rather have than MAndrews, but those couple of guys are now in different tiers. 
• T.J. finally grabbed the team lead in targets for week 8. Hock may be the most consistent TE in the fantasy game. Either scoring via receptions or bailing out the bad weeks with TDs. My only hesitation in moving him higher, Stafford’s track record for using the TE as the 2nd, 3rd, or later option. That being said, another week where Hock leads the team in targets will have me feeling much better. 
• Noah Fant looked healthier in week 8 after looking like a shell of himself in week 7. He has 16 targets over the last 2 weeks, and I expect him to keep scoring via receptions if nothing else. He only has 3 red zone targets on the season, but to be fair, the Broncos are 2nd to last in RZ attempts with only 20 on the season. 
• Jared Cook, somebody get this man a toque because Drew Brees keeps throwing it into Jared Cook’s kitchen. Cook has touchdowns in the last 3 weeks and 4 of the 6 weeks he’s been on the field. The only player on the Saints with more targets in the last 2 games, Alvin Kamara. 
• Gronk was originally in the tier below for me, but he basically fits the same mold as Jared Cook (after he returned from injury). Gronk has 26 targets in the last 4 weeks with TDs in the last 3 games. Maybe that changes once all of their pass catchers get healthy, but for now, he’s getting the bump. 

Useful, Useful That…

• Jonnu tricked me and peaked as a top 5 TE last week, but I’m dropping him a couple of spots after 3 straight clunkers with only 8 targets across those 3 games. One was an injury game, then he blocked more vs the Steelers, but 2 for 29 vs the Bengals isn’t what we wanted. Rule #76 no excuses, play like a champion. I mentioned almost every week that Jonnu was pretty TD dependent, and he may be reverting back to the Jonnu from previous seasons. With A.J. Brown back and healthy and Corey Davis becoming a factor, Jonnu just doesn’t have the same type of role he did at the start of the season. Start em (unless you have one of the options above) and you’ll feel as though they should be useful for your squad most weeks.
• Hayden Hurst is basically the tier down version of Noah Fant. Plenty of targets week to week, but not as much in the red zone as we would like with only 4 RZ targets. Hurst seems like a pretty safe bet for receptions and some yardage, and that’s good enough for me in this tier.
• Hoping that Goedert’s week 8 is a bit like Fant’s week 7, and that it’s just a case of knocking the rust off and still getting healthy vs anything more actionable. I still expect Goedert to get plenty of work, but the chance that he’s not healthy and may still miss some time this season has me worried enough to keep him down in this tier, for now.

It Could Be Worse

• Hunter Henry still has the snap % and the average targets per game to be high, but he hasn’t reached 50 yards in a game since week 3 and only has one score on the season. I still believe in the talent and the offense looks good under Herbert, but I can’t continue to ignore the decline in production after a hot start. 
• Jimmy Graham has been doing it through receptions and TDs, but last week was a glimpse into why he doesn’t climb much higher. Not the athlete he once was and can’t stretch the field. 60 yards in a game is his high point for the season, but he still got 7 targets last game even if he only pulled in a couple. 
• Are you guys having Fun-yan yet? Robert Tonyan has more ups and downs than the vote tallies this week. 3 TD game, disappeared for 2 weeks, and then 5 for 79 yards.  I don’t actually mind the boom or bust from TE as much as other positions. So many TEs flop on a weekly basis, give me one that has the ability to put up the big week. Don’t love the match-up this week vs the 49ers as they are top 10 against TE in yards, receptions, and TDs, but that is against 1, maybe 2 good TEs, so I’d say it’s only below average rather than awful, as match ups go. Points against TE is such a random stat, it’s important to look up who those teams have played. 
• Evan Engram (one of the TEs to go against the 49s this year, had 3 for 22, but it’s the Giants) has 19 targets for 11 receptions in the last 2 weeks, but is ONE FRIGGIN’ RECEIVING TD too much to ask for? 

The Pack

This globule of TEs are match up and TD dependent. Trick or Treat it as such and hope they find the end zone. 

• Ebron has at least 5 targets in all but 2 games, and he has 6 red zone targets. That’s not bad, but you’re entering the Steelers quarter, or maybe quintet, of scoring options. He does have a pretty solid aDot of 8.4. Hasn’t had a 60 yard game all year. Yards are whatever on tight ends in this realm though… Yep, this is how it goes in my brain. Welcome. 
• I know I asked for Logan Thomas to find the end zone, but I didn’t mean for it to come at the expense of the high target rate from earlier in the season. Exactly 4 targets in the last 4 games does not leave much room for error, but with back to back weeks with scores, there does seem to be a connection in the red zone between LT and Allen. If we could just get both the targets and the scores now…… Not being greedy, but asking for it has worked before. Just saying. 
• Mike Gesicki did not get the Tua bump I was hoping for, so, I’m resigned to put him with The Pack this week. Gesicki grabbed 1 catch for 8 yards on 2 receptions and was out snapped by Durham Smythe for the 2nd time this season for blocking purposes. I do think this may be the best time to buy him for next to nothing in dynasty and wait to see if he and Tua can get on the same page in a more regular offseason. 
• Austin Hooper should be back after the Browns bye this week. He had appendix surgery, it wasn’t an injury, but still could have to get up to game speed. Hooper was coming off 3 straight games with 5 receptions, but considering the bye week and then the uncertainty of the following week, it’s hard for me to say he’s worth much more than this ranking. 
• Trey Burton has scored on rushing attempts in back to back games. While that’s a nice bonus for a TE, it’s not something I expect to continue. The snaps and targets are split amongst all 3 TEs, Doyle (58% snaps, 3 tgts), MAC (42% snaps, 4 tgts), Burton (51% snaps, 4 tgts), which makes it difficult to trust any one of them on a week in week out basis. Any one could be a nice bye week filler though, and at least one should be available in most leagues. 
• Gerald Everett had 9 targets, tied for 2nd on the Rams in week 8 compared to only 4 for Tyler Higbee. For now, it seems as though Everett has taken his spot atop the Rams TE room back. However, I’m not sure what that’s really worth. After GE’s nice 90 yard game, his highest yardage in the next 3 games has been 32 yards. 
• Higbee had 3 for 56 in week 7 to give us a glimpse of hope and followed that up with 2 for 14. The Rams TEs have a place in the offense, but it’s definitely not consistent. 
• Dalton to Dalton has been pushed back a week after Andy was thrown on the COVID list. Hard to trust any Cowboys fantasy options, but Ben DiNucci did love that check down to Schultz last week, which was good for 6 receptions. Could be worse. 

Avert Your Eyes

• If you have enough space on your roster, I suppose Zach Ertz could be useful for the playoffs, but he wasn’t all that useful before. Best hope is that he was already hurt and now has time to heal, but even that may well be a waste of a roster spot. At this point, TE can be a barren wasteland, so the snaps and potential targets of Ertz still fits in the top 25 for me. Understand if you need the roster space, there’s likely better uses. 
• Irv Smith Jr. is still here for dynasty and Kyle Rudolph injury purposes, but not somebody I want to trust starting yet. 
• For MAC and Doyle, see info in the Trey Burton write up. Pretty much the same case except these 2 haven’t been given rushing TDs the last couple of weeks.
• Darren Fells remains Darren Fells. He gets a lot of snaps because he’s a strong blocking TE and every now and then, he leaks out for some receptions. Can be streamable, but don’t expect him to climb beyond that point. 
• Drew Sample is the primary TE for the Bengals, but that hasn’t mattered much. Inconsistent and limited upside isn’t what I’m looking for out of a TE. If you just need someone that will be on the field for you, he does qualify for that role. 
• Greg Olsen got 4 targets last week for 0 and 0. At this point, I would prefer that he just got out of the way for Will Dissly.
• Cameron Brate is used just enough to be relevant. TB12 has always utilized the TEs and Brate may luck into a score every once in a while.