Fantasy Football Week 7: Start or Sit Greg Olsen, Austin Hooper, or Jordan Reed?
Every week at Football Absurdity, we like to help you with your start or sit decisions. However, we have found that highlighting just one player at the fringe helps exactly one player in every league. In the interest of spreading the wealth, we have changed the format. We will now provide you start or sit advice and details on three players you should start and three you should sit on the periphery of usefulness. We are here for the people, and we only want to help you! Without further ado, the TE discussion part two this week: should you start or sit Greg Olsen, Austin Hooper, or Jordan Reed?
Start or sit Greg Olsen at Philadelphia
This is my plea to owners reading this, trying to decide if they should start or sit Greg Olsen: if I am wrong, and he has a good week this week, try to trade him. His foot injury frequently requires additional surgery, and he already left a game early then missed over a month of action waiting for it to heal. Not only that but in the last two calendar years, Olsen has averaged three catches for 38.7 yards a game while scoring just two regular-season touchdowns. That’s a sixteen game pace of 54 catches for 619 yards and two scores. those are almost exactly Jared Cook’s 2017 numbers. He was TE 18 on the year. They’re a decent approximation of 2016’s TE14, Gary Barnidge’s numbers, as well. They’re bad, folks. They are unlikely to get better against a Philly defense that ranks third-best at stifling fantasy football production to tight ends. Please listen to my pleas, that a 33-year-old tight end isn’t going to be the one to buck the trend that he will recover fully from his injury without needing a second surgery. Sit Greg Olsen all the way onto someone else’s squad.
Start or sit Austin Hooper versus New York Giants
Last week, I hyped up Austin Hooper to the moon and back, citing the awful Tampa Bay defense against tight ends. He came through, but I don’t expect him to keep that up again this week. I know it’s crazy to say a guy who had fifteen targets in his first four games combined won’t continue to average eleven targets a game as he has in his last two. He’s done well with those targets, snatching nine catches for over 70 yards a contest. However, he gets a Giants squad that gives up surprisingly little production to the tight end. They haven’t faced much outside of Zach Ertz, but Ian Thomas, Ryan Griffin, and ASJ all had enough targets to produce but did not. This one is a tentative sit because the return of Calvin Ridley and/or Mohamed Sanu will have Matt Ryan looking elsewhere this weekend. What’s more likely to happen is that Matt Ryan finally gets Julio Jones touchdowns, than he force-feeds targets to Hooper for a third straight week. As I said, he’s a tentative sit due to a crowded offense this week. Don’t drop him, but break ties towards guys like David Njoku or C.J. Uzomah when deciding to start or sit Austin Hooper.
Start or sit Jordan Reed versus Dallas
It’s been a bad season for owners perpetually deciding whether to start or sit Jordan Reed. I said he should finally be healthy, which I was mostly right about, but everything else has been a mess for Reed. He has just one touchdown on the year and hasn’t topped 65 yards. Alex Smith is spreading the ball around to everyone, with four different players averaging over four targets a game this year. While Reed is tied with Chris Thompson for the team lead, he has six fewer catches than Thompson. Alex Smith is returning to Captain Checkdown, which unfortunately has left Jordan Reed out in the cold. This week isn’t the worst matchup for Reed, but it isn’t good, either. The Cowboys allow the thirteenth-fewest fantasy points to tight ends, wtih only Evan Engram doing anything of value against them this year. Outside of Engram, TEs are averaging just 33 yards, and they haven’t scored. While I anticipated him being outside of the start or sit discussion this season, Reed has made it clear that you need to sit him until he shows something for your fantasy football squads.
If you have to hold your nose and decide which one of these guys to start or sit, my personal order is
- Austin Hooper
- Jordan Reed
- Yourself
- A black silhouette that says “Tight End”
- The “You have 1 Empty slot on your roster” warning
- Greg Olsen
If you own one of the guys below, these articles should help you decide if you should start or sit them:
Start or Sit Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff or Joe Flacco?
Start or Sit Jameis Winston, Matthew Stafford or C.J. Beathard?
Start or Sit Jarvis Landry, Devin Funchess or John Brown?
Start or Sit Will Fuller, Larry Fitzgerald or Demaryius Thomas?
Start or Sit Frank Gore, Peyton Barber or Kerryon Johnson?
Start or Sit Adrian Peterson, Bilal Powell or Lamar Miller?
Start or Sit David Njoku, C.J. Uzomah or Trey Burton?
