You have lineup questions. We have answers. At least we hope. Start 'Em & Sit 'Em has helped fantasy managers for years make those pressing lineup decisions. And you know what is a good decision? Starting Patrick Mahomes. But that's too obvious, so you won't see that here. Instead here are some of the most-pressing questions. And, if you can't find a player you are looking for, please check out latest NFL Fantasy lineup rankings right here.
Start 'em
Fant has quietly been crushing it this season for the Broncos, averaging 12.34 fantasy points per game this year. Which makes him the TE6. The only problem is he’s always thought of as the third Iowa tight end behind George Kittle and T.J. Hockenson. But remember, Dean Ambrose was kind of thought of as the third guy in The Shield behind Tyler Black and Roman Reigns and now he’s the AEW World Champion. So he’s got that going for him. And a good matchup against the Chargers who have allowed a top-seven tight end in two of their last three games.
REVENGE GAME. And I’m sure I’ve mentioned this somewhere already this week. But the Bears offense you saw last week was not great. I don’t believe it’s as bad as we saw on Monday night. Maybe I’m just wishing it into existence. (Because that home game against the Saints was where things went bad last year.) The good news here is Graham has 10 red zone targets this season, second amongst tight ends. The Saints have allowed the most points to tight ends this season.
I suppose a lot of that FPA for the Saints and tight ends comes from Tonyan and what he did against the Saints a few weeks ago (three touchdowns if you don’t remember). I was worried he was going to suffer when Davante Adams returned and those fears were spot on, because Aaron Rodgers love to throw the ball to Adams. I do like the tight end matchup this week. The Vikings have allowed 2.3 receiving touchdowns per game this year. Maybe he can spare one for Tonyan?
Smith hasn’t been awesome the last couple of weeks, but it’s cool. He’s going to Cincinnati where Harrison Bryant took this team apart last week. In fact, Baker Mayfield threw three touchdown passes to tight ends in Week 7. The Bengals have allowed the fourth-most fantasy points to tight ends this season. And have allowed a top-three tight end in three consecutive games. I have Smith in my League of Record and I’m hoping that he makes it four in a row.
Look, the Eagles run enough 12 personnel so it doesn’t matter if Dallas Goedert returns or not for me. Wentz has thrown close to 12 passes per game to the tight end position. The Cowboys have also allowed a top-10 tight end in four of their last six games.
Sit 'em
I’m going to be tempting fate here that Tua Tagovailoa isn’t going to make Gesicki a fantasy superstar at some point, but we’ve seen some other players get into the mix for the Dolphins. Like Bears castoff Adam Shaheen. A guy who the Bears used a second-round pick on instead of taking George Kittle. (Don’t know why you’re laughing Broncos fans, you took Jake Butt the pick immediately before Kittle went to the 49ers.) The Rams have been OK against tight ends, but I want to see this play out for a week.
Engram might be one of the most disappointing fantasy guys in the league. At least for me. I had high hopes for him with Jason Garrett as offensive coordinator. What’s weird is Engram has played this season. We figured if he stayed healthy, he would be a beast. That hasn’t happened. He hasn’t reached double figures since Week 2.
Look. We pulled Harrison Bryant out of the Danger Zone last week and he popped for a pair of touchdown receptions. Bryant was the guy who was able to come in and take over a ton of production held by Austin Hooper in a plus matchup. Njoku did score a touchdown which was amazing. But he wasn’t productive enough in the game to be thought of as a factor moving forward.
The Packers have been tough on opposing tight ends this season, allowing the eighth-fewest points to the position. And Smith is hurt by the fact Kirk Cousins is his quarterback. I know, cheap shot. I would reason most of Cousins' production will go to Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson.
Everett scored a touchdown against the Bears and took advantage of Chicago shutting down the outside receivers for the most part. But we don’t like his matchup this week against the Miami Dolphins, who have allowed 3.2 fantasy points per game to tight ends. The second-lowest total this season behind only the Indianapolis Colts (but we still like Hockenson this week).
