Tight end has certainly been a crapshoot this year! Kyle Pitts was a bust, we lost Bob Tonyan and Logan Thomas to injuries and Darren Waller and George Kittle for multiple games, as well. Fant, Goedert, and Higbee all failed to live up to their top-twelve expectations, and Gronk is inexplicably TE1 in fantasy points per game. Anyway, shake it off! This is your win & in week for the fantasy football playoffs and we are here to help. To shepherd you to fantasy football glory, we have three week fourteen tight end sleepers available to help you out!
Cole Kmet at Green Bay (26% rostered)
Kmet would be in line for a higher roster rate if it weren’t for the Bears stubbornly giving Jimmy Graham far too many end zone targets. But, over the last couple of weeks, he has 18 targets or about 22.5% of Andy Dalton’s targets in that timeframe. That’s a target share that you want to chase because that comes with fantasy football usefulness. Kmet turned those targets into 106 yards and 11 catches in the last two games, which gives him a great floor in this Green Bay matchup.
The Bears will need to throw to keep up with the Packers, which means a lot of targets for Kmet this Sunday. On paper, the packers are a bottom-half matchup, allowing the twelfth-fewest fantasy points to tight ends this season. In practice, Tyler Higbee’s one catch, three-yard effort in week twelve marks the first time a tight end with five or more targets against them walked away with lower than a 4/49 line. That line? Cole Kmet. 4/49 with a chance at a score feels like a good line for Kmet.
C.J. Uzomah versus San Francisco (14% rostered)
Let’s be clear, here. Gerald Everett should have had two touchdowns last week. He bobbled a pass that turned into a pick and then bobbled a carry into a fumble, both at the one-yard line. The 49ers didn’t do a great job of stopping him in the red zone, likely because they are down to emergency linebackers thanks to injuries to Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner. Their traditionally stout TE defense is a bit wobblier than usual, and Gerald Everett dropping everything in his path stopped them from paying the price.
Uzomah’s flow chart worked last week, as he ended up with six targets against the Chargers. Unfortunately, things didn’t break his way. With Joe Burrow nursing a dislocated pinky finger on this throwing hand and facing Nick Bosa and the 49ers’ pass rush, I anticipate a lot of dump-offs to Uzomah this weekend (his average target the last three weeks is about three yards downfield, he’s the release valve).
John Bates versus Dallas (1% rostered)
With no Logan Thomas, and no Ricky Seals-Jones, and the tight end a key part of their lineup (more tight end targets than the 49ers this season!), the Washington Football Team likely turns to rookie John Bates. Bates filled in well after Thomas went down partway through last week, notching three catches for 42 yards on four targets while playing just 57% of snaps. The Cowboys don’t give up a lot of touchdowns to tight ends (four on the year), but they do give up taches and yardage. If a tight end tops five targets against them, they generally have a good week. They’re also usually better than John Bates, so let’s not get too crazy.
If Ricky Seals-Jones (9% rostered) is the play for Washington and is active, then he’s the play for your squad.
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