Week 16 is here, which should mean championship week for most of you. I pity the fool who plays a championship in Week 17. I crushed rankings in general last week, and am still sitting pretty at #4 overall for tight end accuracy this season. Word.
Just like we all expected, Cameron Brate and Hunter Henry are tied for the league lead in touchdowns among NFL tight ends with seven apiece heading into finals week. I hope you successfully streamed those guys this season. Both are strong starts this week. In Henry’s case, I am more than a little worried about the Chargers chasing the scoring record for Gates—but Henry has outproduced Gates all season and this is a prime matchup for both players. Henry could be valuable on just a handful of targets against this punchless Browns unit.
Jordan Reed is ninth among tight ends in total targets, but he averages a healthy 7.5 targets per game, good for the third-best mark in the NFL this year (only Greg Olsen and Kyle Rudolph are ahead of him). Alas, there is no way to know the status of Reed’s shoulder at this time and using him this week is super-risky. I’ll have some exposure in GPPs if he goes, but that’s about it. At this point I anticipate him not playing and he will not be ranked at this time.
Ladarius Green is in the concussion protocol and did not practice on Wednesday. We have already seen how long it took Green to return from the same situation earlier in the season. Green is not a recommended play even if he suits up, and at this point if I had to bet on it I would say he does not play this weekend. Jesse James is not interesting against Lavonte David and a Ravens defense that is stifling against tight ends.
Austin Hooper was initially a name to monitor, but he has already been ruled out for Week 16. His paltry five targets over his last five games was not inspiring confidence anyway.
Let’s get to it.
1 Greg Olsen
2 Cameron Brate
3 Kyle Rudolph
4 Zach Ertz (already played, and stunk up the place)
4 Antonio Gates
I am a sucker for Gates and have been all season. I refuse to miss out on the inevitable two-touchdown effort from him. Against what team would we most expect that sort of league-winning effort? The Cleveland Browns, of course! Fade Gates at your own risk this week.
5 Delanie Walker
6 Eric Ebron
8 Tyler Eifert (ruled OUT so C.J. Uzomah takes over)
7 Travis Kelce
8 Vernon Davis
9 Hunter Henry
10 Jimmy Graham
The weather forecast for Chiefs and Broncos currently shows winds to exceed 20 miles per hour. That and the return of Maclin are enough to be slightly bearish on Kelce’s outlook this week. But this is also the horrible position known as tight end, so he is still an upper-tier option.
11 Jason Witten
12 Martellus Bennett
13 C.J. Fiedorowicz
14 Coby Fleener
15 Charles Clay
16 Gary Barnidge
17 Ryan Griffin
18 Jack Doyle
20 Trey Burton (already played and stunk it up)
Trey Burton’s targets the last three weeks: 9-10-6. He gets the Giants tonight, which is a positive matchup if you exclude scoring actual touchdowns. I know that sounds weird. I like Burton mainly because the Giants pass defense has been excellent on the boundary areas of the field this year, and because the Eagles don’t have good wide receivers on the boundaries anyway. Give me Ertz, Matthews, and Burton over the middle in this matchup. This was awful. Moving on.
19 Jared Cook
20 Dennis Pitta
21 Daniel Brown
22 Dwayne Allen
23 Jermaine Gresham
24 Levine Toilolo
I do not understand the love for Jared Cook this week. Sure, he toasted the Bears last weekend, but is that really an achievement? The default setting with this guy is that he is invisible. I’d rather bet on a Davante Adams bounce-back effort than lean on Cook anywhere. He is a TE2 only in my book, and that is solely because his quarterback is Aaron Rodgers. Toilolo gets the plush matchup against Carolina this week with Austin Hooper out.
25 Lance Kendricks
26 Clive Walford
27 Garrett Celek
28 Dion Sims
29 Jesse James
30 C.J. Uzomah
And that’s it for this week, ladies and gents. I’ll do the rankings for Week 17 for the select few who are wacky enough to still play meaningful games in that week. Next week will have more of a daily fantasy slant, though, as most season-long leagues will conclude this weekend. Best of luck to all, and to all a goodnight...