It’s fantasy football week nine, which means we’re only seven weeks from fantasy championships, and over halfway through the real fantasy football season. “What about week seventeen championships?” you might ask. To that, I say: join a real fantasy football league. As always, we’re here to help with some fantasy football sleeper tight ends to help plug holes in your lineup. These guys are owned in less than 50% of Yahoo! leagues, with one player available in at least 90% of Yahoo! leagues. The same caveats apply: see if the guy’s in Waleed’s Waiver Wire Cheat Sheet are available in your league. If they aren’t, then here are some fantasy football sleeper tight end options for you!
Week Nine Fantasy Football TE Sleeper:
Jonnu Smith at Carolina (35% Owned)
Delanie Walker is still sidelined with his ankle injury and is officially out against the Panthers this weekend. That makes it Jonnu Smith the starter once again in Tennessee. 2019 Jonnu Smith without Delanie Walker has returned the promise that we hoped a Walkerless Jonnu would return in 2018. Without Walker, Smith has turned in 142 yards on nine receptions, kicking in a touchdown, in the last two games. Under the Ryan Tannehill Regime, Jonnu leads all Titans in receiving yards. Here’s the only rub… The Panthers give up the tenth-fewest fantasy football points to tight ends. However, only two tight ends had at least five targets against them. Both Tyler Higbee and George Kittle turned in double-digit fantasy point days (and Cam Brate did it with four targets). If Jonnu gets the targets, he will deliver on Sunday.
Week Nine Fantasy Football TE Sleeper:
Dallas Goedert versus Chicago (19% Owned)
There’s a change in the air, and it isn’t just the turn from Halloween season to Thanksgiving season. The Eagles are finally utilizing Dallas Goedert to a bigger extent. The Eagles had hyped a two-tight end gameplan, but Dallas Goedert’s calf had other ideas. Over the last three games, Goedert has 17 targets to Zach Ertz’s 19 targets. Prior to that point, Ertz had 45 targets on the season, and Goedert had just 10. A true tight end committee is a-brewin’ in Philly, and Goedert is taking full advantage of the opportunity, posting 29.9 fantasy points over the last three games, he’s averaged the tenth-most half-PPR fantasy points per game, twenty-three slots ahead of Zach Ertz. The Bears are a top-ten TE matchup on the week, but to put that in perspective, they’ve allowed double-digit fantasy point days twice in half-PPR. TE is a crapshoot, so avoid the bad matchup and lean towards the targets. For now, stay with the hot hand and Trey Burton.
Deep Dive Week Nine Fantasy Football TE Sleeper:
Cameron Brate at Seattle (8% Owned)
O.J. Howard is officially out, and even if he wasn’t, would it matter? Howard has been the NFL tight end equivalent of a tree falling in the woods this season, and turning to Brate will help focus the limited non-Mike Evans, non-Chris Godwin targets into one player. Brate has ten targets in the last two games, and while he’s only converted half of them into catches, he has knocked in 79 yards and a score in those two games. This week, 79 and a score feels like a good ceiling for Brate, given the matchup. The Bucs travel cross-country to face the Seahawks and their #28 tight end fantasy football tight end defense. The Seahawks are plain bad against the position, and Brate can join Austin Hooper, Ricky Seals-Jones, and Gerald Everett as TEs with at least 12.2 fantasy points in HPPR leagues. How bad are the Seahawks? Vance McDonald outscored all those guys back in week two.
Vance McDonald!
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