Starting around week five, sleepers start to get really weird. 0-4 teams have abandoned the season and the better teams aren’t scouring the waiver wire yet. It’s a nice little lull, a pat on the head from the fantasy football gods for a month’s worth of hard work. With that in mind, these are three tight ends on rosters in fewer than 50% of Yahoo! fantasy football leagues to wet your whistle. For you deep divers, we have one sleeper tight end unrostered in at least 90% of Yahoo! leagues.
Week Five Sleeper Tight Ends
Jonnu Smith (46%) & Hunter Henry (42%) at Houston
Houston allows the second-most fantasy points on the season to tight ends, while playing Chris Manhertz, James O’Shaughnessy, Harrison Bryant, Austin Hooper & Tommy Tremble. If that sounds familiar, it’s how I led off my sleeper case for Dawson Knox against these Texans last week. Knox ended with 37 yards and two touchdowns on five receptions. So, let’s just say Operation: Pick on the Texans continues this week. Both Jonnu & Henry scored in week four against the Buccaneers’ pass defense because they both had five targets. It’s a fairly straightforward proposition. If a tight end gets targets, and they play against the Texans, then they are going to be in this article (roster percentage willing).
Evan Engram at Dallas (31% rostered)
Yes, Evan Engram has been a huge disappointment so far this year. He missed weeks one and two with an injury and then turned in seven catches for 48 yards over the last two weeks. Those numbers aren’t the ones that I care about. He has six targets in each of his two games this season, and those are the numbers that I like. I also like that he has half of the Giants’ red zone targets in the last two games, as well. The Cowboys’ pass defense leaves a lot to be desired, and their tight end defense is included in that. Four tight ends have at least five targets against them so far this season, and three of them notched at least 7.6 half-PPR fantasy points. It’s a volume and matchup play for Engram this week, and you could get ahead of the curve on a breakout if he gets his act together.
Tyler Conklin versus Detroit (10% rostered)
Tyler Conklin has 14 targets in his last two games, and he had a big game (70 yards and a touchdown) and a dismal game (18 yards) in there. Because of the 18 yard game, people won’t trust the 70-yard game. Personally, I like them both. Why is that? Because of the targets. He had eight targets two weeks ago and six targets last week. Those are the numbers that I want to trust. Since Conklin started to get targets two weeks ago, three of his fourteen targets are in the red zone. Keep hammering that. This week, he could come through against the Lions. On paper, they’re just okay against tight ends, but in reality, they are quite bad. They gave Robert Tonyan his one non-dreadful game this season, and let Mark Andrews and George Kittle combine for over 180 yards.
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