As Howard Bender often says, “sometimes you just have to play the hits”. And that’s what we did in Week 11 with Travis Kelce finishing as the TE1 on the main slate and George Kittle finishing as the TE3.

We also successfully faded some of the other high priced tight ends like Cade Otton and Jake Ferguson as well getting a TE6 finish from the mid-tier in Dallas Goedert.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Week 11 TE Coach For FanDuel & DraftKings Fantasy

It wasn’t all perfect as Dalton Kincaid got hurt on us and Hunter Henry only ended up catching one of his targets. Way she goes. 

Time to dig back into the data and see if we can hit more than we miss again in the NFL DFS Week 11 TE Coach!

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Top Tier Picks For Week 11

Travis Kelce, TE Kansas City Chiefs DraftKings: $6,300 | FanDuel: $7,400

Travis Kelce is BACK, plain and simple. But these DFS sites aren’t treating him like that. Once upon a time Kelce would be $1,000 more than the next highest tight end on the main slate. 

This week he’s not even the most expensive tight end on FanDuel. Over the last five games he leads all tight ends in targets, receptions, and fantasy points (Trey McBride has slightly more yards over his last five games). 

And that five-game stretch includes a game against the 49ers, arguably the toughest matchup for tight ends. With no Trey McBride and Cade Otton on the slate, Kelce is the obvious pay up. 

Brock Bowers TE Las Vegas Raiders - DraftKings: $5,800 | FanDuel: $7,200

We’ll talk about George Kittle in the fades section below. We actually don’t mind Evan Engram at his price, but he’s got a tough matchup and Mac Jones as his QB. 

And, with David Njoku, there’s no guarantee who will be the top targets out of him, Cedric Wilson, Jerry Jeudy, and Elijah Moore. It’s been a different player the last four games. With Brock Bowers, we know he’s a focal point. This is a special player. He’s been special at every level. 

He’s basically a stronger Jordy Nelson that you can start at tight end. And he’s kind of quietly off to one of the best rookie seasons a tight end has ever had. Despite already having his bye week, his 73 targets and 57 receptions are second only to Travis Kelce. 

And his 580 yards lead the entire NFL. These are our guys at the top this week. On FanDuel we prefer Kelce but, on DraftKings, Bowers is cheaper enough than Kelce to make a difference in your lineup. 

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Mid-Tier Picks For NFL Week 11

Kyle Pitts, TE Denver Broncos- DraftKings: $4,800 | FanDuel: $5,500

There are a lot of good plays in this range. For instance, if Isaiah Likely is out again, you have to make at least one Mark Andrews team at $4,600 on DraftKings. We don’t have to explain why that is the case. 

But there are two other TEs we like at that price point as well. The athleticism for Kyle Pitts always puts him in play. His size/speed combo is unrivaled at the position. 

And that’s a big reason why he’s the only tight end in the league this year with three 40+ yard plays. If he has a fourth one this year, he will be the only tight end to do so since 2018 George Kittle.

This week the dreaded Pat Surtain will be all over Drake London. That’s what led DeAndre Hopkins to only get 5 targets last week while Travis Kelce got 12. 

This is a rare opportunity for Pitts to be a focal point of this offense. And we’ve seen him not only break off big plays but also have a two-touchdown game a couple of weeks ago. It’s a Pitts week. 

T.J. Hockenson, TE Minnesota Vikings, DraftKings: $4,700 | FanDuel: $6,500

Hockenson is back but he’s not fully back yet. Over the last two weeks he’s playing only 45% and 46% of the snaps. Even then, he’s too good to not get the ball to so they threw him 9 targets, of which he caught 8.

The idea here is pretty simple. The DFS sites have not raised the price for Hockenson to account for his upside. They might just continue to manage his workload the way the Ravens have with Mark Andrews. 

Or, at some point, he’ll go back to being an every-down player getting peppered with targets. At which point his price will go up. So, we’re going to play him now at this price and hope that happens this week. 

BONUS MID TIER: Hunter Henry, DraftKings: $3,900 | FanDuel: $5,300

If you are looking for someone cheaper than Hock but higher than the Value Tier, we like Hunter Henry if he’s healthy. 

A lot of folks will be off him after last week, but he quietly played 89% of the snaps, ran 87.5% of the routes, and had a 16% target share. He just only caught one of them. He should be fine. 

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Value Picks For NFL Week 11

Dawson Knox, TE Buffalo Bills - DraftKings: $3,500 | FanDuel: $5,100

Sometimes we need to play a little “chalk defense”. That’s where there is a super obvious chalk play that everyone is going to be in on. And it happens to also be good chalk. 

So, if you are someone that makes a lot of lineups, you’ll need to make a couple with Knox to make sure you aren’t missing out on the obvious but popular play. 

In this case, Dalton Kincaid got nicked up at pretty much the perfect time for Dawson Knox. It’s one week before the bye making it more likely he will sit out. It’s a potential shootout matchup with the Chiefs. 

And the Chiefs are letting up the most fantasy points per game to tight ends of any team. Oh, and it’s also his birthday. Today. Happy birthday to all of us at his price of $3,500 on DraftKings and $5,100 on FanDuel. 

Shane Zylstra, TE Detroit Lions - DraftKings: $2,500 | FanDuel: $4,000

If we’re going to get bold, why not go all the way bold? If Sam LaPorta misses this week, Brock Wright is going to be a popular play. But are we sure that he’s the BEST play from this Lion tight end room? I think it’s more of a question than most think and Zylsta is the bare minimum on both platforms.

It seems crazy to bet on a guy who hasn’t caught a pass since 2022 but he quietly profiles as the better pass-catcher than Wright. Just last week Brock Wright ran only 11 routes and pass blocked on four pass plays despite playing 37 snaps while Zylsta ran 9 routes on his 19 pass plays. 

In a full game, Zylstra could easily run more routes and get more targets than Wright, just like he did back in 2022. This is a guy who set receiving records as a wide receiver in college at Minnesota State before converting to tight end in the NFL, after all. 

Some may say we are still chasing the legendary 3 touchdown Shane Zylstra game in Week 16 of 2022. And maybe they’re right. But, if you’re going to have to do some fantasy tight end wishing, you might as well do it at the bare minimum price against the Jacksonville Jaguars. 

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Fades For Week 11

George Kittle, TE San Francisco 49ers - DraftKings: $6,000 | FanDuel: $8,000

We were afraid this might happen. George Kittle has been THRIVING with the injuries to Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk, Ricky Pearsall, and Jauan Jennings. And, although Aiyuk is done for the season, the other three are back. 

That actually saw Kittle finish fifth on the team in targets this last week with only 4. Kittle has the rare athleticism to put up big numbers on limited targets. But last year when everyone was healthy, he only had a few games with more than three targets. Jordan Mason only had 12 targets on the entire season - Christian McCaffrey got 7 in his first game back.  

If I’m going to pay up for the most expensive tight end on the slate, I need to know those targets are locked in. Especially if Kittle is dealing with a hamstring issue.

Tucker Kraft, TE Green Bay Packers - DraftKings: $4,400 | FanDuel: $6,000

We love Tucker Kraft - in dynasty. Eventually that team will have to pay some of these guys and that pass-catching room will thin out. For now, it’s fairly crowded. In fact, no Packers player is on pace for over 90 targets. 

Tucker Kraft himself doesn’t even have 40 targets in 9 games. And 38% of his yardage on the season actually came on just two plays, one of which was completely blown coverage. 

Kraft is a favorite in the red zone, but we are looking for guys that can get peppered with targets AND possibly score a couple TDs in that range. And I’m not sure if Kraft is that right now.

 

 

 

NFL DFS Week 11 TE Projections