NFL Fantasy Football Start 'Em, Sit 'Em Week 3: Tight ends

He’s not scoring three touchdowns this week. Or he might. The Bills have allowed 18.05 points to the position this year. But we love this because of the uncertainty the Rams have at running back. It’s a big reason why we thought Jared Goff could get some prolific touchdown totals this year. And if that handoff to Robert Woods had been a flip pass people love doing, then it would have been amazing. But we’re talking Higbee here, and I believe he’s the No. 1 option when the Rams get inside the 5-yard line replacing Todd Gurley, who was the guy the past couple of seasons. 

Sometimes you play the FPA, and sometimes you look at tight ends who end up being matchup proof. The Vikings have allowed the 10^th-fewest points to fantasy tight ends this season. But quarterback Ryan Tannehill has targeted Smith a lot, especially near the goal-line as the two have connected on three touchdown passes this season. The Vikings don’t worry me enough to keep me from starting Jonnu who has scored the most-fantasy points this season. 

Jonnu is the top-scoring tight end in football. Noah Fant is third. And if you’re wondering, Travis Kelce is the TE2 right now, so there is some normalcy there. Like Kelce is Edge while Smith and Fant are Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins. (Side note, highly underrated WWE.) But let’s talk about Fant. His matchup against the Bucs isn’t great, but the sample-size is too small. The Saints scored 13 points from the tight end position against the Bucs in Week 1, which means I’m looking for opportunity, especially near in the red zone.

Man, I always hate it when I stick myself out there for a player and he doesn’t come through. Thomas looked like a great matchup against the Cardinals. And it was kind of bad. But he’s got another great matchup this week as the Browns have allowed the most-production to tight ends so far this season. You don’t want to bail on a guy after one game. Maybe the Cardinals are no longer a pushover against tight ends. I’m giving Thomas one more chance. 

I’m not terribly fond of the matchup for Cook because the Packers have allowed 18.96 points to fantasy tight ends this season. But Cook is the second-most targeted receiver on the Saints right now. He leads the team with 131 air yards. I have no problem starting Cook no matter what the matchup says.

Engram is one of the players I would love to see with a bigger role in the Giants in the wake of Saquon Barkley’s season-ending injury. Engram did catch six of his eight targets against the Bears for 12.50 points. All but one of those targets came in the second-half when the Giants were trying to get back into the game. Tough matchup this week against the 49ers who have allowed just three receptions (on eight targets) to tight ends this year.

We keep waiting for Herndon to finally deliver, and this goes all the way back to last season when he was a buzzy sleeper pick. You start to wonder what could possibly be going on, and then you remember Adam Gase is the coach of the Jets. Now it’s all starting to come together. Oh well, maybe he’ll thrive post-Gase like a lot of his former players (looking at you Ryan Tannehill and Kenyan Drake). The Colts have allowed the fewest points to tight ends this season (2.05 per game). They have allowed a total of 11 yards to tight ends.

Again, we love Rob Gronkowski and wish him nothing but success, but it hasn’t looked right for the second-consecutive week. What figured to be a security blanket situation for Brady with Chris Godwin out, never materialized. In fact, his one target turned into an interception. Not only is Gronk not startable on your fantasy team, he shouldn’t even be on your roster. There will be a time when he makes a comeback and looks like the Gronk of old. I just have to see it first. 

Hockenson was drafted eighth-overall last year to be the next Rob Gronkowski. And it’s worked out as well as when the WWE tried to pass of Mason Ryan as the next Bautista. And yes, Dave Bautista was once a WWE superstar. But Hockenson has never really been able to deliver since Week 1 last season. He’s been perfect on all nine of his targets this season. But the troubling aspect is he’s been targeted in the red zone only once.