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Week 10 Tight End Rankings - Standard Leagues

Heath drops some Week 10 tight end knowledge.

By Heath Capps
After the upper crust at tight end, I want the guy with a Hall-of-Fame QB and a cheese matchup.
After the upper crust at tight end, I want the guy with a Hall-of-Fame QB and a cheese matchup.
Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Here are a few snippets from my Week 9 TE Rankings:

In Week 9 I am showing Jacob Tamme some love as Matt Ryan's acting #2 receiver. He feels slightly safer to me than Benjamin Watson...

Tamme tied with Devonta Freeman for the second-most targets on the team (10) and finished with a respectable 61 yards receiving. He failed to score, so he only finished as the 16th-best tight end. And he was safer than Watson, by 0.10 points--or one yard! Don't laugh. That move could have won someone a head-to-head matchup.

Austin Seferian-Jenkins is the wild card this week. I am ranking him as if he will play, and that makes him a low-end (but high upside) TE1 in my book. Remember, the Giants are atrocious at defending tight ends...

ASJ did not play, but the logic is sound and should have you paying up for Rob Gronkowski this week in all formats. As for ASJ, he will not make these rankings as his "recovery" continues to drag out.

Now for a look ahead to Week 10:

Jordan Reed draws the Saints, who just allowed two tight ends from the same team to crack the top 10 in Week 9. Delanie Walker was the #1 tight end of the week and Anthony Fasano finished 8th overall. DeSean Jackson has returned to muddy the waters in Washington, but as an underdog at home you can expect Kirk Cousins to air it out plenty and to have some success...eventually. I have been saying it all year: Jordan Reed is a legitimate TE1 when he plays.

If you combined the statistics from Heath Miller and Jesse James from last week (who played the Raiders) you would have had the 7th-best tight end output of Week 9. And the Raiders are still the best matchup for tight ends so far this season--and we are already at Week 10, so that is a lot of data. This week, Kyle Rudolph gets to try to take advantage. But with even with Teddy Bridgewater optimistic to play, Rudolph is a TD-dependent flex play at best.

Finally, do yourself a favor and get ahead of the learning curve by moving Delanie Walker up your rankings and into your DFS lineups. With Mike Mularkey (a former tight end) taking over in Tennessee, it seems clear that Walker is going to be heavily involved in the game plans each week.

Week 10 TE ranks are here:

RANK NAME TEAM OPPONENT NOTES
1 Rob Gronkowski NE @ NYG A dream matchup. Multiple scores are possible.
2 Jordan Reed WAS NO The Saints are second-worst at stopping the tight end.
3 Greg Olsen CAR @ TEN Cam's only viable option is as steady as they come.
4 Tyler Eifert CIN HOU Always has multiple-TD upside as the major RZ threat.
5 Delanie Walker
 TEN CAR
 With new HC Mularkey, Delanie is the man.
6 Charles Clay BUF @ NYJ Revis on Sammy means more for Clay.
7 Ben Watson NO @ WAS The matchup isn't great but none are at this point.
8 Martellus Bennett CHI @ STL Another tough matchup but he'll see targets.
9 Richard Rodgers GB DET Usage a worry but Davante/Jones aren't stepping up.
10 Jimmy Graham SEA ARI Perhaps he'll snag a TD but this is a bad matchup.
11 Travis Kelce KC @ DEN Can the Chiefs emulate the Colts? Unlikely.
12 Gary Barnidge CLE @ PIT Zero faith in Johnny Manziel to get him the ball.
13 Eric Ebron DET @ GB At this point a good matchup is enough.
14 Julius Thomas JAC @ BAL Maybe he can finally find a rhythm with Bortles.
15 Crockett Gillmore BAL JAC No more "Smiff" so I want to go higher, but I just can't.
16 Kyle Rudolph MIN @ OAK His floor is low, but he can score touchdowns.
17 Zach Ertz PHI MIA Is slowly getting more involved in the offense.
18 Jason Witten DAL @ TB He almost never scores, okay? Literally zero upside.
19 Heath Miller PIT CLE Hopefully you aren't depending on him with Ben out.
20 Jordan Cameron MIA @ PHI What a major disappointment so far.
21 Owen Daniels DEN KC He's not dead yet! But almost.
22 Clive Walford OAK MIN Could have easily had two TDs last week.
23 Scott Chandler NE @ NYG Those pesky Patriots and their matchup nightmares...
24 Darren Fells ARI @ SEA He could find some room up the seam.