Alright folks - we (hopefully) survived the first week of NFL bye weeks. If it was rough sledding for you with bye weeks and injuries, I’d start making some plays for depth now because it only gets tougher. This week a TON of key pass catchers go on bye like Stefon Diggs, Cooper Kupp, Justin Jefferson, AJ Brown, Gabriel Davis, DeVonta Smith, Adam Thielen, Dallas Geodert, Tyler Higbee etc. And, that with only four teams on bye. In Week 9, seven teams will all have a week off. Dark times.

In the meantime, we’ll get you up to speed with our updated rest of season tight end rankings so that you can plan accordingly. At the bottom of this article in the notes section I’ll do my best to lay out some key info on each guy and how best to utilize them. If you only need a one week fill in for instance, someone like Cole Turner or Cade Otton could be interesting so make sure not to skip the Handcuff section at the bottom. 

As a reminder, here is the full write-up on how the strategy works. The short and sweet is that, if you don’t have an elite tight end, you should roster two: the safest possible play (Yin) to start each week and the highest upside bench stash (Yang) to see if we can catch lightning in a bottle. The rankings themselves are based on years of research we have done on the position which is all compiled into this one article on What Makes An Elite Tight End.

 

*Orange players have potentially injury issues

Tight End
Standalone
Mark Andrews
Travis Kelce
George Kittle
Dallas Goedert
David Njoku
Tyler Higbee
  
YinYang
TJ HockensonDarren Waller
Zach ErtzKyle Pitts
Gerald EverettEvan Engram
Robert TonyanHunter Henry
Pat FreiermuthTaysom Hill
Hayden HurstLogan Thomas
Mike GesickiGreg Dulcich
Dalton SchultzJuwan Johnson
 
The Rest
Daniel Bellinger
Cole Kmet
Dawson Knox
Irv Smith Jr.
Cameron Brate
Tyler Conklin
Noah Fant
Jonnu Smith
Kylen Granson
 
Handcuffs
Cade Otton
Cole Turner
Isaiah Likely

STANDALONE TIER

  • Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce - Given their usage, it really doesn’t matter who you rank at one or two. These guys are in a tier of their own. 
  • George Kittle - In last week’s article we laid out exactly why we had him ranked third. His behind-the-scenes usage was pretty much identical to how it’s been when he’s been one of the most dominant tight ends in the league. And he came out this week with a 10 target performance to back that up. He remains here.
  • David Njoku - David Njoku just passed two massive tests and deserves his spot on this tier. He faced off against the Chargers Derwin James and the Patriots Kyle Dugger and managed to still give you a little something. Impressive. After being asked to block on 17% of his pass snaps combined the first two weeks (which is not ideal), he has bounced back to essentially be the second target on this team. That change in usage seems to have coincided with the return of tackle Jack Conklin so hopefully he will be free moving forward. Conklin scared us this week by leaving in the third quarter briefly but he returned to the game so it should be smooth sailing. 
  • Dallas Goedert and Tyler Higbee - Both players are on bye this week which isn’t the end of the world for Tyler Higbee as he’s been nursing an injury. Both have been very similar this season in terms of usage - they are playing high snap shares and getting consistent targets though they both have low aDots (3.9 for Higbee and 3.7 for Goedert) which hurts their ceiling a bit in standard leagues. That said, most leagues these days are at least some kind of PPR where they have been fairly consistent. If you have these guys, you are really just looking for a fill-in then you will be throwing them back in the lineup next week. 

Safe Plays (YIN)

  • T.J. Hockenson, Zach Ertz, and Gerald Everett - The story remains the same for these three. Anytime there are WRs in the offense hurt, they are worth a start. Eventually, guys like D.J. Chark, Jameson Williams, Keenan Allen, Marquise Brown etc. will rejoin the team but, for now, these guys get a boost. With DeAndre Hopkins returning, the Marquise Brown injury bailed out Ertz to a certain degree but trading for Robbie Anderson pours cold water on that a bit. 
  • Robert Tonyan -  We saw a glimmer of hope this week from Robert Tonyan - after five weeks of him playing a partial snap share, he saw a bit of a boost running 39 routes this week. It was 39 out of 51 so nothing too crazy but, if he can run 39, he’s capable of playing more. He’s still a fairly boring play given that deployment but he might start to be a little safer moving forward.
  • Pat Freiermuth and Dalton Schultz - Freiermuth has been dealing with a concussion and Schultz tweaked his PCL again so neither can be trusted until they are healthy. Even then, you are banking on pass volume as neither player is really a focal point of the offense. 
  • Hayden Hurst and Mike Gesicki - Similar to Muth and Schultz though we can’t even make an argument that these guys are in the conversation to be a top two target on the team. It’s clearly Tee Higgins/Ja’Marr Chase for the Bengals and Jaylen Waddle/Tyreek Hill for the Dolphins. 

Upside Plays (Yang)

  • Darren Waller and Kyle Pitts - We know the upside for these athletic freaks who play a ton of snaps at WR. But this year a combination of injuries and lack of volume have move them from the safe standalone tier to the “risky upside” group. I’m still willing to start them whenever they are healthy but we all recognize the risk. 
  • Evan Engram - Outside of two brutal weeks vs. the Chargers and vs. the Eagles in a hurricane, the targets have been pretty decent for Engram. He actually leads the team over the last two games with 16 combined targets. Engram has the athleticism and he’s still in the mix to be a top two target on this team but he really needs to start finding paydirt soon. That’s been an issue for him going back longer than just this season as he’s not quite as big as your typical tight end.
  • Hunter Henry - After a rocky start for Henry, his deployment has been much better the last two weeks. In fact, he’s played every snap except three over that span. And his production has ticked up to show for it. That said, he was incredibly ineffective with Mac Jones under center so we’re going to need to reevaluate if the team put Bailey Zappe back on the shelf.
  • Taysom Hill - The story is the same with this player. It’s a boom-bust touchdown guessing game. If you are comfortable with that, get him in there. I am willing to start him over any boring TD-dependent tight end since, if we are playing the TD guessing game, might as well go with the guy getting goal-line carries. But the lack of targets gives him an incredibly low floor in PPR. As we saw this week.
  • Logan Thomas - It’s a shame he got banged up because his usage was ramping back up and we know what that upside looks like. Right now you can probably only carry him if you have an IR spot.
  • Greg Dulcich -  Sometimes we see the production of a rookie in their debut and it’s fantastic in terms of fantasy points (like Jelani Woods) but the usage doesn’t match up. In this case, the usage was fantastic so we are buying in. Hopefully, you stashed him in an IR spot last week like we recommended so you already have him.

Tight End Handcuffs and The Rest

  • Daniel Bellinger - Bellinger saw his best deployment yet this week. His routes run per drop back were dismal up to this point but this week he played 60 fo 64 snaps and ran 28 of 34 routes. He’s trending up. 
  • Cole Kmet - Kmet continues to play virtually every snap and run the majority of the routes and the team continues to not throw the ball at a high level. He’s been demoted to the “deep league only” level.
  • Cade Otton - Wheneve Cameron Brate has been out, Cade Otton has gotten a FULL snap share. And I mean full - in week 5 he played 74 of 79 snaps and ran 51 routes. Brate was carted off this week so he could be a sneaky fill in that you can grab for free.
  • Cole Turner - Turner is simply more athletic than John Bates and the better bet any time Logan Thomas is out, despite them each running 23 routes. He showed that this week. 
  • Isaiah Likely - If anything happens to Mark Andrews, he is must add.

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