Week 9 Tight End Rankings - Standard Leagues

This is year two of yours truly focusing solely on standard league tight end rankings here at FakeTeams, and the results are beginning to show. So far I rank #7 out of 138 fantasy experts in tight end accuracy over at FantasyPros. Not bad for a self-described “fanalyst.” Now that I’ve told you why you should at least peruse these rankings, let’s get down to business.

1 Greg Olsen

2 Jimmy Graham

3 Antonio Gates

4 Travis Kelce

5 Kyle Rudolph

No Rob Gronkowski or Jordan Reed this week makes the top choice an easy one. Anything can happen in football, but logic dictates that Greg Olsen occupies the top spot among all safety blankets this week. Just lock him in, ladies and gents.

Hunter Henry is out with a knee injury which means Antonio Gates is a strong TE1 play despite his advanced age and plodding ways. Gates could have additional TE1 value next week against the Dolphins if Henry makes little progress, as the Chargers have their bye in Week 11 and it would make little sense to rush Henry back with the break looming.

I don’t love it but Kyle Rudolph is a top five option this week. This position is truly barren with two studs on their bye weeks.

6 Gary Barnidge

7 Coby Fleener

8 Eric Ebron

9 Dennis Pitta

10 Jason Witten

11 Julius Thomas

12 Delanie Walker

13 Jack Doyle

Delanie Walker is legitimately questionable after slipping in practice on Thursday and injuring his groin. This is sad news, as the matchup against San Diego is appetizing. Anthony Fasano is the understudy in Tennessee, but I can’t get excited about him. Fasano is a low-end TE2 with Walker out and a dart throw with him playing in limited capacity. I’m just not interested. I’d boost Mariota instead, as it follows that he would shoulder more of the playmaking role and perhaps get us some cheap points with his legs.

Dwayne Allen is back but still isn’t 100 percent, so Jack Doyle’s viability is murky. If I made 10 DFS lineups I’d have a share of Doyle, though—at least for one more week in what should be a shootout with the Packers.

14 Lance Kendricks

15 Charles Clay

16 Dwayne Allen

17 Zach Ertz

18 Richard Rodgers

19 Virgil Green

20 Vance McDonald

21 Clive Walford

22 Jesse James

23 MarQueis Gray

24 Anthony Fasano

25 Josh Hill

Jordan Cameron and Dion Sims are both out, so MarQueis Gray is now Miami’s starting tight end. He is a low-end TE2.

If you are mining for tight end production below this sentence, I pity you.

26 Erik Swoope

27 Austin Seferian-Jenkins

28 Will Tye

29 Mychal Rivera

30 Larry Donnell

31 Brent Celek

That’s all for this week. What a barren wasteland we have here. If you don’t have a guy in the top 10 this week, things might get ugly.