Tight end has been a bit strange in the early going of the 2024 NFL season, to say the least. So forgive us if we didn't have Elijah Higgins scoring a touchdown in Week 2. But what we did have was three out of four of the top DFS tight ends in Hunter Henry (TE1), Brock Bowers (TE3) and Trey McBride (TE4). 

 

 

 

And Hunter Henry actually managed to finish as the TE1 in DraftKings scoring this past week despite being only $3,800 - now THAT is how we create leverage with our NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach.

NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach For FanDuel & DraftKings Fantasy

Our NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach article should be just as loaded this week as bye weeks don’t start for another couple weeks and it’s a tremendous slate. 

Unfortunately, our value king Hunter Henry will be off the main slate playing on Thursday night, but we have some other tricks up our sleeve. 

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Top Tier Picks For Week 3

Trey McBride, TE Arizona Cardinals - DraftKings: $6,200 | FanDuel: $6,800

What is up with FanDuel on this? They don’t seem to want to price Trey McBride the way he should be priced. We have now pointed this out in multiple weeks now and we will keep taking advantage. Trey McBride is priced at TE4 when he should be priced at TE1. 

Trey McBride is virtually the only tight end that is elite in every metric important to us - route participation, WR snaps, average depth or target, yards per route run, pass block % etc. That has translated to the #1 target share of any tight end at 28.8% with the next highest two being Hunter Henry at 25.5% and Brock Bowers at 22.5%. Doesn’t get much better.

Even on DraftKings - which is full PPR and the best format for McBride, his pricing isn’t as high as you might expect. He’s not getting the respect that guys like Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta did last year. The over/under for this game with the Lions is 52.5 points and Detroit has been easy to take advantage of out of the slot so McBride is the top payup.

***Greg Dortch is a late add to the injury report with a hamstring issue. Could mean additional targets for the target king***

George Kittle, TE San Francisco 49ers-  DraftKings: $5,700 | FanDuel: $7,100

We don’t love George Kittle in redraft typically because of his boom/bust nature. But his boom/bust nature is just what we want in our NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach. If he busts, it’s just another loser. All we care about is the BOOM.

And last year George Kittle only had 3 games with 3+ receptions when all of Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, and Brandon Aiyuk were healthy. Well guess what? CMC and Deebo aren’t healthy. Kittle had 7 games with 7+ targets and 6 of those came without one of those guys. Now is the time for George KIttle to thrive. 

Kittle certainly benefits from the scoring on FanDuel as it’s half PPR with a bonus for 100+ yard games. Over the last 7 years, Kittle leads all tight ends with 16 plays of 40+ yards. He’s the only tight end with multiple 70+ yard plays - he actually has three. So, maybe you use Trey McBride or even the white-hot Brock Bowers on DraftKings, but Kittle might be the FanDuel king. He’s currently TE1 in their scoring. 

***Update George Kittle has now missed practice on Thursday and Friday and is at risk to miss the game - pivot to McBride or Brock Bowers***

 

 

NFL DFS TE Mid-Tier Picks For NFL Week 3

Dallas Goedert, TE Philadelphia Eagles - DraftKings: $4,600 | FanDuel: $5,800

Again, this is a player that we don’t usually use. Why don’t we use him? For starters, he’s behind AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith for targets. That’s honestly reason enough but he’s also generally not the red zone target folks think he is. He has only 7 end zone targets over the last 3 years. To put that in perspective, Donald Parham had 7 last season.

Conditions have obviously changed though. AJ Brown is out with a hamstring issue. Nick Sirriani has given up full  control of this offense to Kellen Moore and Jalen Hurts. And this matchup with the Saints and the 49.5 O/U has juicy shootout potential.

I’m a little surprised that there wasn’t a deviation from how Goedert is typically priced here but we’ll take advantage. DraftKings is the preferred format for Goedert and likely cash games as he always garners targets but doesn’t rip off big chunk plays or score that often. But he could actually get 7-8 targets like we see sometimes when a WR is out.

Pat Freiermuth, TE Pittsburgh Steelers - DraftKings: $4,000 | FanDuel: $5,200

Pat Freiermuth is just chugging along this year. Hopefully, at some point, Russell Wilson takes over and he can be fully unlocked. Because we really like his role in this offense. He’s nto only running around 75% of the routes but he’s running 83.4% of his routes from a WR spot. That’s conducive to pass catching.

He’s also quietly top 10 in target share and TE9 on the season in DraftKings scoring. He’s basically doing it just by catching everything thrown his way - he’s caught all 8 of his targets. I’m no offensive coordinator but, if you have a guy that has caught every pass you throw at him, maybe you should throw him more passes? Just a thought.

I’m one of the few that believes this Chargers-Steelers game is going to hit the over. Not a shootout by any means but the 36 point O/U could scare some folks away and we can get low ownership on Muth. He was worth his price in cash last week and, if you get that plus a touchdown, it’s house money at these prices. No one really has explosive upside in this range so, in GPP, we are either paying up or paying down.

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Value Picks For NFL Week 3

Greg Dulcich, TE Denver Broncos, DraftKings $2,900 | FanDuel: $4,500

How often does a guy get 8 targets and his pricing goes DOWN? But that’s what happened here with Greg Dulcich. Yes, he did have a couple rough drops so he only caught 3 of the 8. But the thought process that led us to Dulcich last week is still there.

Tim Patrick is gone. DeVaugn Vele is OUT. Lucas Krull is a healthy scratch. They don’t have another “big slot” option and it’s something Sean Payton and Joe Lombardi clearly want in this offense. If Greg Dulcich lost his trust last week and his role is diminished this week, we won’t use him again. But at THESE prices we have to take another look. He played 19 snaps at WR for a team that doesn’t have great WRs.

Under $3,000 on DraftKings is where the scrubs and the backups belong. Grant Calcaterra is more expensive than Greg Dulcich. If you can find another tight end under $3,000 that isn’t in this article that you think can get 8 targets in an NFL game this week, Tweet it at @CoopAFiasco. If It hits, your next DraftKings Milly Maker entry is on me. 

***DeVaugn Vele was cleared to play this week. We are still using Dulcich in some spots***

Hayden Hurst, TE Los Angeles Chargers - DraftKings: $2,900 | FanDuel: $4,800

Like Dulcich, Hurst is getting better usage than a $2,900 tight end typically has. He not only led the Chargers tight ends in routes run this past week, he actually ran the second most to only Quentin Johnston. It’s only a matter of time until he gets the looks that pay off at this insane price.

With Will Dissly as the clunky inline blocking tight end, that has actually freed Hurst up to run 72.1% of his routes from a WR spot. He hasn’t been asked to block on a single pass play and his 9.2 yard aDot is pretty darn good. At this price all he needs to do is rip off one or two chunk plays and we’re playing with house money.

Hurst was limited in practice Wednesday so double check the injury report as we go along. If he’s out, we are throwing Stone Smartt in lineups just like we did last year when Gerald Everett was out and he popped for a 50+ yard TD. We’ll also give you a bonus dart throw in this NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach just in case.

BONUS DART THROW: Ja'Tavion Sanders, TE Carolina Panthers - DraftKings: $2,500 | FanDuel: $4,400

This is a bare minimum priced player on DraftKings. And he ran more routes for the Panthers than teammate Tommy Tremble. He has rock solid hands - our upside comps for the rookie are guys like Zach Ertz and Hunter Henry. And, with Andy Dalton taking over at QB, who knows who he’s going to look to? 

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Fades For Week 3

Sam LaPorta, TE Detroit Lions DraftKings: $6,000 | FanDuel: $7,000

My concern isn’t that Sam LaPorta has been “phased out”. He’ll get involved at some point, I’m sure of it. It’s obviously concerning that the Lions lead the league in pass attempts with 84 and LaPorta hasn’t done much. But it’s not the talent I’m worried about.

What concerns me is that Dan Campbell straight up said the slow start for Sam LaPorta is tied back to an off-season injury. I really don’t like that. A similar thing happened with George Kittle early last year so Shanahan just kept him in to block more. With Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, and Jahmyr Gibbs, I just don’t feel the pressure to use LaPorta. 

If he goes off this week, great - we’ll start mixing him back in the rotation after that. But we don’t get any sort of “slow start due to injury” discount on his pricing. If they start discounting him, then we’ll talk. 

Dalton Schultz, TE  Houston Texans - DraftKings: $4,300 | FanDuel: $5,500

Folks are going to look at a 28th ranked Vikings defense against the tight end and they’ll want to get him in there. Will they care that that ranking is entirely based on one George Kittle game? No. Will they care that he is dealing with an ankle issue? No. Will they care that this team has Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, and Tank Dell ahead of him for targets? No. We care though. No Schultz in our NFL DFS Week 3 TE Coach. 

Taysom Hill TE New Orleans Saints - DraftKings: $3,800 

I know what you’re thinking. Don’t do it. This is a new scheme. Taysom Hill only has two snaps at QB so far this year. They are letting Derek Carr play. On top of that, he’s not healthy. Do you really want your goal line back to be a 34-year-old gadget player with a chest injury?

 

 

 

NFL DFS Week 3 TE Projections