Week 9 is here, and as always, there will be plenty of questions about who to start and who to sit in your fantasy football lineups. Below, we’ve provided analysis for every fantasy-relevant tight end in every game this weekend.
If you’re looking for all positions, head to our Week 9 Fantasy Football Start-Sit Cheat Sheet for every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Brock Bowers | LV (at CIN)
The star rookie has been either a top-five producer at the position or outside of the top 15 in every game this season. That can be a frustrating profile — but not at the tight end position. Having access to an elite upside is what drives decision-making because so few players have it.
Bowers’ target share elevates in one-score games (27.3%), and that’s a sign that this team is very willing to label him as the alpha in this offense. This offense may not put him in a position to be the most consistent producer, but that doesn’t mean you second-guess his status in your starting lineup. Not this week. Not this year. Not for the rest of the 2020s.
Cade Otton | TB (at KC)
The star of National Tight Ends Day (officially the final Sunday of October for those keeping track at home) scored twice, doubling his scoring output from his previous 11 regular season games in the process.
Otton has caught 17 of 20 targets over the past two weeks, establishing himself as the lone soldier still standing for Baker Mayfield in this passing game. That role isn’t going to change this week, and that elevates Otton to a top-12 play, even when facing the fifth-best defense in terms of both scoring and yards per play allowed.
My answer would be “Yes.” Yes, I would sell Otton for a viable Flex piece if given the opportunity as I don’t think his value the rest of the way is drastically ahead of replacement level.
Cole Kmet | CHI (at ARI)
Does a single player’s profile fit the tight end position more than Kmet’s?
- Week 3 at Indianapolis Colts: 25.7 PPR points (26.8% target rate)
- Week 4 vs. Los Angeles Rams: 6.4 PPR points (15% target rate)
- Week 5 vs. Carolina Panthers: 8.7 PPR points (14.3% target rate)
- Week 6 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars: 24.0 PPR points (17.9% target rate)
- Week 8 at Washington Commanders: 4.4 PPR points (5.6% target rate)
Kmet has been consistently productive when given the opportunity, but that role is spotty at best. He has just one end-zone target this season while his slot rate is down from last season and his red-zone usage is as low as it’s been since his rookie campaign.
Kmet draws a bottom-10 defense in both scoring and yardage, making him a reasonable plug-and-play option this week if you’re in need, but this isn’t the type of player I’m labeling as a stable option for the remainder of the season.
Dallas Goedert | PHI (vs. JAX)
The veteran tight end suffered a hamstring injury in Week 6 and has now missed consecutive games. He was awfully ordinary through two weeks (seven catches on nine targets for 69 yards) before taking full advantage of receiver injuries around him in Weeks 3-4 (17 catches on 19 targets for 232 yards).
As long as both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are active, I’ll be projecting Goedert, when healthy, much closer to the version of him we saw to open the season than the featured numbers he put up at the end of September.
The Jaguars have been reasonably stout against opposing running backs this season, so maybe that creates a path to usage. But even if you want to pencil him in for those short, chain-moving looks, his aDOT is 23.6% higher than it was a season ago.
We’ve seen hamstring injuries linger more this year than seemingly ever before — this is a situation you’re going to need to watch weekly.
Dalton Kincaid | BUF (vs. MIA)
Kincaid has just one finish better than TE10 this season and has yet to clear 52 receiving yards in a game — he’s been viable, he just hasn’t taken that Year 2 step that we were hoping for.
Buffalo’s TE1 is a good teaching point about priors. We all enter our fantasy drafts with player takes and a cheat sheet. We have thoughts on 200+ players that we work hard to form, and that’s 100% the right way to go about things.
But leaving those takes in the preseason is a skill that takes some refining. If I laid out the state of the tight end position league-wide and told you that I’d give you 6+ targets every week (Kincaid has done it in five straight games) for the fifth-highest-scoring team in the league, you’d take it and not think twice, right?
But because of our previous thoughts, we are labeling Kincaid as a disappointment. His ADP means nothing now — at the end of the day, you’re getting passable numbers from the TE slot on your roster and that’s a luxury that not all teams have.
I’ve come off of my “Kincaid can be a top-three producer at the position” take, but that doesn’t mean I’m looking for other options; Kincaid is a weekly starter and you don’t need to roster a backup.
Dalton Schultz | HOU (at NYJ)
All of Schultz’s production came in the first half, and that is exactly what makes him nothing more than a low-end streamer: he can disappear for extended periods. His target rate sits at 17.4% this season when Nico Collins isn’t on the field, up from 12.7% with the alpha receiver, a role that might only last one more week with the WR1 eligible to come off of IR in Week 10 (vs. Detroit Lions).
There are better options on your wire than Schultz this week, and while I’ll be evaluating his usage as this offense evolves, I’m happy to do some from a distance.
David Njoku | CLE (vs. LAC)
Njoku has been a physical mismatch ever since he entered the NFL, and Jameis Winston is as good at taking advantage of talent as there is. We saw that on the 23-yard touchdown last week in single coverage where he just outmuscled the defender, and I suspect we see more of it moving forward given Winston’s propensity to trust his top playmakers.
He’s scored in consecutive weeks and can be used as a weekly option across all formats with confidence as the featured pass catcher in the fourth most pass-oriented offense when inside the red zone. It should be no surprise that Njoku posted his highest aDOT since Week 12, 2022, giving him an upside that only a handful of tight ends in today’s game have.
Evan Engram | JAX (at PHI)
How good has Engram been since returning? I’m glad you asked.
In his last three games, he’s averaging 13.4 PPR points per game with a 5.5-yard aDOT and a 25% on-field target share. During his nearly record-breaking 2023 campaign, he averaged 13.6 PPR points per game with a 5.0-yard aDOT and a 23.4% on-field target share.
He’s been an elite option, and Trevor Lawrence’s confidence in his tight end was never more clear than late last week, as he lobbed a ball up in triple coverage to Engram with under two minutes left in a one-score game.
Touchdown.
The volume is going to be as good as any player at the position, though I do worry about efficiency moving forward given the number of injuries in the passing game around him. The Eagles own the fourth-lowest opponent passer rating this season when targeting tight ends, and that makes this a difficult matchup, though the sheer number of projectable opportunities is too much to ignore.
If you’re fading Engram, it’s in DFS and not in any sort of season-long format.
Hunter Henry | NE (at TEN)
Henry is averaging 13.3 PPR points over his past three games, earning 20 looks across those games and proving that he is capable of leading this otherwise unproven roster of pass catchers. How much does his value hinge on the signal caller?
Those charts look pretty similar, right? The playbook isn’t any different, but the reads are. Under Maye, Henry has produced 29.9% over fantasy expectations while averaging 2.1 yards per route run, a drastic improvement from his marks under Brissett (18.2% below expectation and 1.5 yards per route).
The Titans have allowed the fifth-highest short-touchdown pass rate this season, and that puts Henry on the low-end TE1 radar, but he’ll flirt with my top 10 should the rookie be back under center.
Isaiah Likely | BAL (vs. DEN)
Remember that 12-target season debut? That was the last time Likely saw five targets in a game. While the snap count is fine (69.4% last week), Todd Monken isn’t running this athlete downfield enough to give him access to a viable fantasy profile.
He saw four targets against the Browns on Sunday totaling one air yard. I still think there’s talent here that can matter, so I’m tracking the situation, but he doesn’t need to be rostered in standard-sized leagues until Baltimore leans into him as essentially their WR2 and carves out consistent work for him.
Jake Ferguson | DAL (at ATL)
Ferguson had zero air yards in Week 8 despite eight targets and has been held under 30 air yards in four straight. He’s an asset in PPR leagues, but the per-catch ceiling is low (zero touchdowns this season and nine catches for 34 yards over his past two games).
I’ll chase the usage (7+ targets in four of his past five) in the highest total game of the week. I hyped up Ferguson plenty this offseason, and it’s clear that I was over my skis, but I do think there is a reasonable floor that can be useful in PPR formats.
Jonnu Smith| MIA (at BUF)
That’s now three straight games with four catches and six targets for Smith, an interesting profile given the trajectory of this Miami offense with Tua Tagovailoa under center.
Smith was on the field for a season-high 67.2% of offensive snaps last — that’s what has my attention. The Dolphins bring a third receiver on the field for just 35% of snaps (second lowest, Ravens), thus indicating, to me, that they officially view the big tight end as their third pass catcher.
Does that lock in viable usage? It doesn’t. We’ve seen this team be as concentrated as any in the league when their duo of star receivers is healthy. However, I’m willing to stream and find out as a cheap way to bet on Tagovailoa.
Kyle Pitts | ATL vs. DAL)
Now this — this is the type of list we thought we’d see more of:
- Justin Jefferson
- Nico Collins
- A.J. Brown
- Pitts
Those are the players in the league that have 65 receiving yards in each of their past four games. Pitts got there with a pair of long touchdowns on Sunday, including a 36-yarder where he worked through a holding penalty, displaying some physical gifts that we fell in love with coming out of school.
The other score was essentially the personification of Pitts’ career up to this point but with a positive spin — barely.
I was set up at about the 1.5 yard line during Kyle Pitts' controversial second touchdown.
So here's my view of it. I tried to focus into when I believe the ball started to come out. The more I watch this, the more I think the refs got the call of TD wrong. @FOX13News pic.twitter.com/2kbBhM1Ask
— Sean Barie FOX 13 (@SeanBarieTV) October 27, 2024
This was one of a few calls on Sunday where a 50/50 call stood simply because of what was called on the field — Pitts’ managers aren’t under any obligation to apologize, but we were close to a different narrative.
His on-field target share and slot usage are both trending toward career lows, so be careful. I’m cautiously optimistic, especially against a Cowboys defense that has allowed a league-high 149.0 passer rating when targeting the position. However, I don’t think we’ve seen Pitts be unlocked or anything like that — he’s still a volatile option.
Mark Andrews | BAL (vs. DEN)
I don’t care that Andrews scored for the fourth time in three weeks.
OK, so that’s a lie. I loved it. But from a sustainability standpoint, a season-high 72.6% snap share is what is sucking me back into ranking the veteran as a fantasy starter. After a brutal September (11.1% target rate), Andrews caught 16-of-18 October targets with a 20.7% target rate.
The snaps and value of those snaps are trending in the right direction, giving me enough confidence to rank Andrews as high as I have over the past month (TE13). If he can produce against a defense that has allowed the third-lowest opponent passer rating on tight end targets through eight weeks, he’ll be inside of my top 10 for Week 9’s game against the Bengals.
Mike Gesicki | CIN (vs. LV)
With Tee Higgins sidelined, Gesicki’s role reappeared. The tight end had twice as many targets on Sunday (eight) as he had in the month prior, though he was still only on the field for 53.4% of Cincinnati’s offensive snaps.
On the plus side, fantasy managers and the Bengals want the same thing out of Geicki — to catch passes. I’m a sports writer with the physical tools to — well — cover sports, and I spent as much time in October pass-blocking as Gesicki. With Higgins listed as doubtful for Sunday, I’m willing to roll the dice with a role like that in a pass-centric offense that faces the seventh-worst red-zone defense (62.1% TD rate) and the fourth-highest touchdown rate on short passes.
Noah Fant | SEA (vs. LAR)
How many tight ends do you think have at least three catches from the QB their team entered this season labeled as the starter in each of the past four weeks?
Six.
There are only six of them, and the other five are rostered in a far higher percentage of leagues (George Kittle, Kyle Pitts, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, and Mark Andrews). Fant, of course, is the sixth, and with a role that sees him running a route on 93.5% of his snaps, there’s a reasonable floor to target here.
The development of Kenneth Walker III as a pass catcher scares me, and a healthy DK Metcalf would naturally limit the target opportunities. That said, streaming the tight end position is a game of extreme turnover, and I’m OK with going this route if your team is otherwise loaded.
The Rams allow the seventh-most yards per play this season (5.8), giving Seattle the opportunity to put their tight end in position to box out a linebacker and score.
Sam LaPorta | DET (at GB)
Week 8 was LaPorta’s fourth finish as a viable fantasy starter, though it didn’t come without a sweat. Brock Wright found the end zone before the starter, and then LaPorta had a score taken off the board after his touchdown was reversed.
It was all shaping up for another big Detroit, small LaPorta game when the Lions were again in tight positioning and pitched it to touchdown-savant David Montgomery. The halfback, however, flipped the ball to the throwing position and delivered an on-target pass to LaPorta, bailing out fantasy managers across this great nation.
You’re playing him in season-long options because you’re not going to have a better option (from a roster construction standpoint, you shouldn’t), but I’m steering clear in DFS. The Packers blitz at the fourth-lowest rate this season (18.5% of opponent dropbacks), and that’s bad news for LaPorta, even with Jameson Williams serving the second game of his PED suspension:
Target rates when Goff is not blitzed, 2024:
- David Montgomery: 27.9%
- Amon-Ra St. Brown: 25.5%
- Jahmyr Gibbs: 22.2%
- Tim Patrick: 16.9%
- Kalif Raymond: 15.3%
- LaPorta: 11.2%
Taysom Hill | NO (at LAC)
After missing nearly a month, Taysom Hill returned to action, and while the fantasy production wasn’t overwhelming, it was a good reminder of what makes him a unique option in our game.
Hill was on the field for 39.7% of New Orleans’ snaps, a role that would relegate most tight ends to useless. Yet, he had nine opportunities (four targets, four carries, and one pass), a profile I’d bet on going into any week if I had the knowledge beforehand.
With receivers falling like flies and the Saints cycling through quarterbacks, Hill is going to grade out as a viable play for me in the short term, at the very least. I currently have him ranked as a streamer, but that’s with the thought that Derek Carr returns to action.
If that news changes, Hill’s versatility becomes more enticing, and he’d move into my top 12 at the position against a defense that allows a league-high 4.4 red-zone trips per game.
T.J. Hockenson | MIN (vs. IND)
We’ve been teased with Hockenson’s (knee) return in consecutive weeks. If we finally get it on Sunday night, he should be locked into your lineup given recent tight ends’ performances against the Colts …
- Week 4, Pat Freiermuth: Five catches for 57 yards and a TD
- Week 5, Brenton Strange: Caught all four targets and a TD
- Week 7, Jonnu Smith: Caught all seven targets for 96 yards and a TD
I don’t think defensive numbers against tight ends are overly sticky, but those are interesting notes as we take a look at a Vikings offense that lacks a secondary pass catcher next to Justin Jefferson. It didn’t take Hockenson any time to get rolling last season (he was a top-six tight end in each of Minnesota’s three games, catching 23 passes across those contests).
While it stands to reason that his snaps could be capped in this spot, that didn’t stop the Rams from weighing down Puka Nacua in his return last week. Hockenson is a top-10 tight end for me right now — and that’s conservative with his status still unofficial.
Travis Kelce | KC (vs. TB)
Is the TE1 version of Kelce back? He caught 23 passes in three October games and finally found paydirt (on his first end-zone target of the season), his first regular-season score in over 11 months.
The future Hall of Famer has three top-10 finishes on his résumé and has caught 17 of 19 targets on the scoring side of the field this season. The Chiefs aren’t and have no reason to use Kelce like the prime version of himself, but as long as No. 15 is under center and he’s operating as the primary underneath option, he’s a top-five tight end.
The Buccaneers have allowed the third-highest opponent passer rating on tight end targets through eight weeks, giving Mahomes every excuse to load up on comfort targets.
Trey McBride | ARI (vs. CHI)
That’s now 15 straight games with at least six targets, a role that is worth its weight in gold these days at the TE position. Okay, so maybe not “gold,” but it could well prove to be worth your league pot as the 24-year-old not only boasts elite usage but gets the Panthers and Rams during the fantasy Super Bowl window (Weeks 16-17).
Trey McBride has been targeted on over a quarter of his routes in five of seven games and racked up over 100 air yards on Sunday for the first time this season. He’s producing at a more than viable level right now and has plenty of room to improve. He has just one end-zone target this season and hasn’t seen a red-zone look in the majority of his games.
Tucker Kraft | GB (vs. DET)
Kraft has been a TE1 in four of five games since seeing his role expanded (over 81% snap share in each of those contests). The target rate is always going to be low given the number of options on this offense. But he is averaging one red-zone touch per game over this run, and that’s a role that should catch your eye.
If Jordan Love is active, I’m fine with considering Kraft as a top-10 tight end. If not, I’m looking to go elsewhere against a Lions defense that ranks sixth in terms of limiting red-zone trips and second-best on third downs.
Tyler Conklin | NYJ (vs. HOU)
Conklin caught a two-yard touchdown pass in traffic on Sunday and now has an end-zone target in three of his past four games. Of course, there is a low floor to consider here (three straight games with under five targets and four games this season with no more than 10 receiving yards), but it is clear that Aaron Rodgers trusts him as the end zone comes into focus.
I’m betting against Conklin long-term, but for now, he’s a viable option with the role inside the 20. The Texans are allowing a league-high 6.3% of short passes to result in touchdowns — that is where this big tight end can win. Conklin is near the top of my touchdown-or-bust options at the position. That makes him the type of tight end I stream in a good spot and replace the following week.
Zach Ertz | WAS (at NYG)
As Ertz approaches his 34th birthday (one week from Sunday, mark your calendars), he refuses to show signs of decline. His on-field target share over the past four weeks is 24.4%, well ahead of his 13.7% rate through the first four weeks. Ertz continues to earn opportunities to produce for loyal PPR managers.
Ertz has scored just twice across his past 16 games, but if there’s a position where I’m most willing to overlook any path to an upside in favor of a floor, it’s this one. Ertz is seeing consistent usage in one of the game’s most explosive offenses. He is even averaging one deep target per game this season. Until this offense sees a WR2 emerge, Ertz is a top-15 tight end weekly and a top-12 option when the matchup is right (he’s my TE12 this week).