On the Fantasy Football Today Facebook page last week, someone pointed out that, hey, maybe tight end isn’t such a disaster anymore. And he was right! But, it’s the kind of thing you don’t want to acknowledge out loud, lest you jinx it. And, guess what happened: Zach Ertz, Noah Fant, Dalton Schultz, Mike Gesicki, Tyler Higbee, Ricky Seals-Jones, Hunter Henry and Rob Gronkowski all flopped. Tight ends are very easily scared, you see. You can’t acknowledge when they are doing well.
In all seriousness, that’s just the way this position works. There just aren’t that many truly special players who can make an impact every week, so most of them are pretty touchdown dependent most weeks. A bunch of those players are still starting-caliber tight ends for me in Week 9, but it was just a reminder that the truly elite players are still rare, and they still stand out.
Here are my tight end rankings for Week 8. To see the rankings of Jamey Eisenberg, Dave Richard, and Heath Cummings, make sure you head here. We’ll be updating this throughout the week with new notes and rankings as we get news and the rankings get tweaked, so make sure you bookmark the page.
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Week 9 TE Rankings
Travis Kelce vs. GB — Kelce has not been exempt from the Chiefs offensive struggles of late. His 271 yards over the last five games are his fewest over a five-game stretch in a season since Weeks 3 through 8 of the 2016 season. However, I’m not too worried about Patrick Mahomes or the offense as a whole, so I think Kelce is going to pull out of this too.
Darren Waller @NYG — Assuming Waller is good to go coming out of the bye, he’s still at the top of that second tier of tight ends, and I think the second half of the season is probably going to go better than the first half did — if nothing else, his 7.1 yards per attempt looks unsustainably low after being at 9.8 and 8.2 the previous two seasons.
Kyle Pitts @NO — Pitts struggled in Week 8 and now has a tough matchup on the way against the Saints, but there’s absolutely no way you can go away from him at this point. He’s too talented and has proven to be too productive.
Mike Gesicki vs. HOU — I’m a little bit worried about Gesicki as his target share fell to 16% in DeVante Parker’s return in Week 8. He still played 97% of the snaps, however, a season high, so I’m not panicking about what this means for his value moving forward. Not yet, at least.
Dalton Schultz vs. DEN — You might be worried about Schultz coming out of the bye week with just two catches for 11 yards, but he was still targeted seven times, so it’s not too concerning for me. We’ll see what happens when Michael Gallup is able to return, but I’ll still trust Schultz, especially with Dak Prescott likely to make his return this week.
Jared Cook @PHI — This is where the drop to touchdown-or-bust happens this week. Cook is actually seeing a pretty healthy role most weeks, but his yards per target has dipped to 6.4, his lowest mark since 2015. If that regresses, he’ll be a more useful option, but it might be too much to ask of a 34-year-old.
Dan Arnold vs. BUF — Maybe Arnold belongs a tier higher. In three games where he has played at least 60% of the snaps for the Jaguars, he is averaging 5.3 catches and 53 yards per game. With 23 targets over the past three games, he’s looking like a potentially reliable option, albeit one who may not quite reach the level of “must-start.”
Pat Freiermuth vs. CHI — There’s a second drop here. I’m optimistic about Freiermuth’s chances moving forward and he does have seven targets in each of his past two games, but I don’t have much faith in him.
Hunter Henry @CAR — Henry had a nice stretch from Week 4 through 7 where he averaged 13.4 PPR points per game, but that came with four touchdowns in four games. This isn’t a great passing game and he isn’t enough of a priority in it.
Tyler Higbee vs. TEN
Zach Ertz @SF — Ertz has had a couple of solid games since joining the Cardinals, but I still can’t say I trust him at this point. Nine targets in two games just isn’t enough for him to be much more than a streamer unless he can sustain a higher level of efficiency than we’ve seen from him in years. Maybe he can do that, but I’m not buying yet.
Albert Okwuegbunam @DAL — Noah Fant was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Monday, and while he could be cleared to play by Sunday, that hasn’t generally been how it has worked out for other players in this situation. Okwuegbunam is big and fast and has had flashes in the NFL, so if he gets something like Fant’s typical role (6.6 targets per game) he could be a viable starter.
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