This week is one of the most difficult DFS slates we’ve seen and the tight end position is no exception. A lot of the trustworthy options are on bye or are in primetime games. Many of the best remaining options have tough matchups. And most of the guys with good matchups are either injured or have usage concerns. But tough slates are tough for everyone so it gives us an opportunity to use that to our advantage. Let’s see what we can piece together in this dicey landscape.

Top Tier:  the safest and most expensive guys available if you want to pay up

Mid Tier: affordable players that offer the best bang for your buck

Value Tier: the bargain bin players that are risky by nature but can have the huge upside in terms of value created

Fades: The guys we feel are the worst value proposition that you should actively avoid

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NFL DFS TE Top Plays for Week 10

NFL DFS TE Top Tier Plays

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs

Mark Andrews is on bye. George Kittle and Dallas Goedert are in prime time. Kyle Pitts played Monday and Darren Waller is on IR (not that they were the elite options we expected anyway). So there really is only one top tier option this week and he just so happens to be the TE king. At $7,800, he’s $2,500 more than any other tight end so you really are paying up for an elite option but in cash — especially smaller/head to head formats — you obviously aren’t going to get anything safer this week. He’s about 16% of your budget on Yahoo and DraftKings but closer to 14% on FanDuel so, if you are going to build a Kelce lineup, FanDuel is the place to do it. Given how tough the TE landscape is this week, this might be the week to do it.

NFL DFS TE Mid-Tier Plays

TJ Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings

Typically, the Bills defense is problematic for tight ends — they’ve been top-10 so far this season. But the weapons responsible for that are all dealing with injury (Jordan Poyer, Tremaine Edmunds, and Matt Milano). Poyer and Edmunds have yet to practice these week while Milano returned but is recovering from an oblique injury which is a tough one. The Vikings were determined to make sure everyone knew the Hockenson trade was worthwhile by feeding him nine targets last week (all of which he caught in the win) so they have to be feeling pretty good about him right now. He’s 10% of your budget on DK and FanDuel but only 8.5% on Yahoo, so that’s the place to play if you care about that.

Dalton Schultz, Dallas Cowboys

Here’s the reality of this play. With the return of DeAndre Hopkins, the return of Dak Prescott, and the trading of Chase Claypool, I think Zach Ertz, Dalton Schultz, and Pat Freiermuth aren’t all that far off in terms of the tier they belong on. In a similar sense, the Rams (Ertz), Packers (Schultz), and Saints (Muth) are all difficult tight end matchups. Yet Schultz is cheaper than the other two this week on all three platforms — on DK and Yahoo he’s a lot cheaper. Schultz typically plays 90-100% of the snaps, but the last two games he played 60-70%. Yet he still caught five and six balls which is all we ask at this price range. Coming out of the bye, we are hoping he’s fully ramped up and can deliver some cost-effective points.

NFL DFS TE Value Tier Plays

Foster Moreau, Las Vegas Raiders

Evan Engram would have been an easy play here this week with his matchup and he still could be if he gets a full practice in and is a full go, but he left last week’s game with a back injury and those injuries can always be dicey. We don’t typically like Foster Moreau as he’s never cracked 67 yards in a game in his four years in the league but this slate calls for extenuating circumstances. He played 57 of 59 snaps last week and ran 35 of 40 routes which is as solid as you are going to get for less than $3,500 on DK. Not only is Darren Waller on IR, but Hunter Renfrow is as well meaning Moreau will be battling with Mack Hollins for second target after Davante Adams. He’s too expensive on FanDuel but he’s 6.4% of your budget on DraftKings and a dirt cheap 5.5% on Yahoo, so he’s not a bad option this time in a plus matchup.

Tanner Hudson, New York Giants

Even before Daniel Bellinger suffered that horrific eye injury, Tanner Hudson was quietly lining up at WR more than Bellinger and running more routes (outside of Week 6 where Hudson missed the whole week of practice with an illness). In the first game without Bellinger, he was only asked to pass block one time and he ran 33 routes which was one more than Darius Slayton and only one less than Wan’Dale Robinson. You aren’t going to find anyone else in this price range that is a starting tight end and got five targets in his last game. And this week he is fresh off his bye and facing the Texans. I’m tempted to either just pay up for Kelce this week or pay all the way down for Hudson.

BONUS DART THROW: Kylen Granson, Indianapolis Colts - Keep an eye on the status of Mo Alie-Cox. Jelani Woods has already been ruled out and Mo is questionable with an ankle. If Mo can’t go, Granson would be the only tight end on the roster. He honestly might be a sneaky play regardless again a bottom five defense vs the position since MAC’s role should skew blocking with the other big boy out.

NFL DFS TE Fades

Greg Dulcich, Denver Broncos

This slate is so tough that you could call most guys fades so we are going to be bold here and pick two plays that should be popular. The Titans look like a plus matchup here but, outside of Travis Kelce, they have kept most tight ends in check and the numbers against them were boosted by two random touchdowns for Mo Alie-Cox. In fact, the three tight ends to score 10+ DK points on them are Kelce, Alie-Cox, and Kylen Granson (also on the Colts). Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy are still likely the top two targets on the team and this game has an absurdly low 36.5 point over under so I’m out here. As our own Jon Impemba would say, this play is “bad chalk”. 

Cole Kmet, Chicago Bears

Here’s another one where people will think they are being sneaky. We like Justin Fields all of a sudden and he’s playing Detroit which is a bottom five team vs. the tight end. But what many folks don’t realize is that the improvement for Fields has come at a cost for Kmet. In the first two games Kmet only pass blocked one time in each game and ran virtually every route but they just weren’t throwing. In the last two they have been throwing but he has been asked to stay in and block on 9 and 8 pass plays which is essentially one of every four or five pass plays. It’s like the universe is playing some cruel joke on Cole Kmet fantasy owners.

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