Fantasy Football Week 8: Start or Sit Rudolph, Ebron, or Reed?

Fantasy Football Week 8: Start or Sit Kyle Rudolph, Eric Ebron, or Jordan Reed?

It feels like the fantasy football season just started, but this is the last week where we can consider ourselves in the midgame. After this week, you’re entering the last third of your fantasy football regular season, and you have to start thinking of things on a week-to-week basis. Thankfully, we always think of you when considering our week-to-week propositions. Our goal is to help you make the hard start or sit decisions every week. We consider six players at all positions, helping you decide if you should start or sit them. Without further ado, in the second half of our start or sit tight ends piece, we help you decide if you should start or sit Kyle Rudolph, Eric Ebron, or Jordan Reed?

Start or Sit Kyle Rudolph versus New Orleans

The calculus for a great Kyle Rudolph season made complete sense right up until the Vikings started playing in earnest. In one hand, you have the Vikings scheme that funneled targets to Rudolph. In the other, you have Kirk Cousins’s penchant for throwing to tight ends. It was a match made in heaven, right up until heaven came crumbling down. Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen ruined Rudolph’s season thus far, as his 12% target share and 10% air yards share are the lowest since 2014. The touchdown-or-bust TE has become even more so this season, with Diggs & Thielen soaking up his stat-padding yards. He’s topped sixty yards just once this season and has seen his yardage decrease each of the last four games. Four scoreless games, might I add. This week he gets a Saints defense that allows the fifth-fewest fantasy points to tight ends on the season. Only one tight end has scored against them, and nobody has topped 30 yards since O.J. Howard’s 54 in week one. Kyle Rudolph was supposed to be a set-and-forget TE1, but he’s stumbled into the “start or sit Rudolph?” territory. This week, Rudolph is a firm sit for me. There’s too much swirling him that will make it a bit difficult for him to turn in a good fantasy day.

Start or Sit Eric Ebron at Oakland

Pour one out for my fellow Ebronites, as his fantasy football projection is likely trending downward this season. He was the #2 TE in fantasy points per game entering last week’s contest, but the return of T.Y. Hilton, the emergence of Marlon Mack, and the likely return of Jack Doyle all eat into his fantasy football production. He peaked in week five against the Patriots, with his 105-yard, two-touchdown Thursday Night Football effort against the Patriots, but it’s all been downhill from there. The offense strengthening around him has Ebron getting just seven targets in each of the last two games, after getting 36 in the previous three. Now Jack Doyle is back. No, no, I don’t like any of this at all. The Colts get the Raiders this week, and their defense that lets you do anything against them. To me, that means running it down their throat and going over the top with T.Y. Hilton. There will be very little left for My Large Adult Son to produce this weekend. With that in mind, I would not wonder if I should start or sit Eric Ebron this weekend. If I had a choice, he’s a firm sit for me.

Start or Sit Jordan Reed at New York Giants

If there’s an anti-Ebron at tight end, a player I cannot ever fathom the ADP or draft stock of, that player is Jordan Reed. Perennially touted as a top-tight end candidate “when healthy,” he is either never healthy (usually) or not producing (recently). He’s fallen out of favor with quarterback Alex Smith recently, getting four or fewer targets in three-of-four games since Washington’s bye. He hasn’t scored since week one, and has topped 55 receiving yards just once this season. This week, Washington takes on a Giants defense that seemingly only does one thing well: stopping tight ends. Only Zach Ertz has scored against them this season, and no other player has more than 7.8 fantasy points in half-point PPR against them. Jordan Reed was supposed to be a monster when healthy. He’s been healthy, but the only monstrous thing has been how his fantasy owners feel about him. He’s a firm sit if you can get away with wondering if you should start or sit Jordan Reed this week.

None of these guys are going to do anything of value this weekend, but if you need to decide who to start or sit, I would start them in this order: