In his Training Camp Battles article, Dan Malin included two tight-end situations worth monitoring: the Buccaneers and the Chargers. Malin had a good reason for including those battles, since two of the players involved—Cameron Brate and Hunter Henry—led the tight end position with eight touchdowns last season, while Antonio Gates finished with seven. For his part, rookie O.J. Howard is considered by many to be the best rookie tight end of the last decade.
While the Tampa Bay and Los Angeles situations certainly deserve the most attention, there are several other teams with uncertainty at the tight end position. Hopefully as training camp and the preseason goes along, we will get more clarity on these situations. It could be that we won’t actually know who has won these battles—if there even is a clear winner—until we are well into the season. In that case, it is still worth knowing these names so that if a winner starts to emerge at any point, we can pounce early.
One of the most common mistakes fantasy players make is to assume we know a) there will be a clear winner and b) who that winner will be. The most likely outcome of all of these situations is probably for two or more tight ends to split the work and not allow anyone to be much more than a bye-week fill-in in deep leagues. That being said, all of these situations have the potential to produce a TE1 if the right tight end wins the job outright. Here are three more tight end situations to keep an eye on:
Chicago Bears
The seeds for this article were planted by a news item on FantasyAlarm that stated Daniel Brown could compete for a role as the Bears’ receiving tight end. My initial reaction was that Daniel Brown is awful and he wouldn’t be relevant for fantasy even if he wins the job. The part of the report that is actually useful is the idea that Zach Miller could actually lose the starting job, or even his roster spot, if he isn’t completely healthy. Miller was the 20th tight end in PPR scoring last season despite missing six games, and while I don’t think Daniel Brown would be nearly as productive, Miller has a chance to be a TE1 if he gets his job back. Even if Miller emerges as the top pass-catching tight end in Chicago, he still has to compete with a deeper receiving corps, and his quarterback situation is unreliable at best. Right now, Zach Miller is worth a flier in deep leagues, but that could easily change between now and Week 1.
I haven’t even mentioned rookie second-round pick Adam Shaheen yet, and for good reason. Rookie tight ends often have a steep learning curve, and Shaheen was considered especially raw coming out of Division II Ashland University. Shaheen probably has the physical tools to succeed, especially if Zach Miller suffers another injury, but more likely than not, Shaheen will be irrelevant for fantasy in 2017.
Los Angeles Rams
Some fantasy players seem to see it as a fait accompli Gerald Everett will start for the Rams after he was selected in the second round of the NFL Draft, but I expect Tyler Higbee to be involved. Higbee is in his second season after the Rams selected him in the fourth round out of Western Kentucky in 2016. This is the situation that feel most likely to wind up a timeshare, but these players may have the highest ceiling if one can wrest the job away from the other, or if the Rams determine their best course of action is to play them both together in a lot of two tight end sets.
The sleeper in this competition is rookie Travis Wilson, a converted quarterback playing tight end for the first time. Wilson’s size and athleticism compare pretty favorably with his more highly-touted teammates, but his learning curve makes him a bit of a long shot.
Baltimore Ravens
Let’s pour one out for Dennis Pitta. Pitta led all tight ends in receptions last season after playing just seven games in the previous three seasons combined, but he will miss 2017 with another hip injury. Crockett Gillmore, Maxx Williams and Ben Watson will likely compete to replace Pitta this season, and any one of those players could be a top-10 fantasy tight end if he wins the job outright. Williams and Gillmore failed to emerge as clear fantasy options with Pitta out in previous seasons, but it is certainly possible that will change now that they have three and four years of experience under their belts, respectively.
Benjamin Watson is probably the favorite to emerge as the number one tight end, since we have actually seen him succeed in that role in the past, albeit with the Saints. Watson is probably a bit more attractive in PPR leagues just because of the way Pitta was used last season, and also the fact Watson has never scored more than six touchdowns in any season.
Even if a tight end does emerge as a clear starter, he could have a hard time making an impact like Dennis Pitta did. With the Ravens signing Jeremy Maclin and Breshad Perriman another year removed from knee injuries, there could be fewer targets available for tight ends.
Finally, Nick Boyle is a sleeper pick to emerge as the top tight end in Baltimore. Boyle has size and good hands, but he has played just 17 games in his NFL career thanks to two suspensions for PEDs. He is someone to keep an eye on, especially if some of the guys ahead of him continue to deal with injuries.