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You’ll find no judgement from yours truly in this space. There are multiple reasons to need to compare tight ends for Week 17 that don’t include playing a Week 17 championship.
For starters, I’ve ranked these guys for 16 weeks (and for the last three years) and I like to finish what I start. That’s my biggest reason.
Next up, if you are playing in Week 17, I hope this helps—and this position is a little more stable than some others right now (though that isn’t necessarily a good thing). There aren’t many hotshot tight ends to be had off of waivers this time of year, not like the running back position, for instance.
Lastly, maybe this helps a tad in your NFL DFS plotting. You can get a baseline idea, at least. A few of these guys do look like values, and I’ll identify those plays in the notes. Anyway, thanks for following along if you have all year, part of the year, or are just showing up right now. If you’ve been here awhile, you’ve had some fairly accurate rankings to go by. Your boy is ranked 28th of 124 experts in tight end accuracy over on FantasyPros, with Week 16’s scoring still to come. I’ll take the top 25% out of all those sharps. Hopefully next year I can extend that to other positions as well, but for now, onward and upward to a wacky Week 17!
Week 17 Tight End Rankings
| RANK | PLAYER | OPPONENT | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| RANK | PLAYER | OPPONENT | NOTES |
| 1 | Travis Kelce | vs. OAK | He's the top option, his team is playing to win, and he's chasing an NFL record for yardage by a tight end in one season. |
| 2 | Zach Ertz | @ WAS | The Eagles need to win for a chance to make it into the dance and Ertz logged a 12-110-2 line with Foles under center last week. |
| 3 | George Kittle | @ LAR | Kittle is also chasing the TE yardage record of 1,327. Meanwhile, Dante Pettis is out already and Marquise Goodwin is questionable. |
| 4 | Evan Engram | vs. DAL | DAL has stiffened against TEs of late, but we don't expect Cowboys starters to play more than a couple of series. Engram is on a roll, too. |
| 5 | Jared Cook | @ KC | He was a dud in Week 16, but KC allows the most fantasy points to enemy TEs. Last week, Ed Dickson AND Nick Vannett scored, for instance. |
| 6 | Eric Ebron | @ TEN | He was limited in Wednesday's practice, which means he'll likely be playing. Problem is the brutal matchup TEN offers--toughest in the NFL vs. TEs. |
| 7 | Rob Gronkowski | vs. NYJ | The Jets are a low-key tough M/U for TEs (8th fewest points) and Gronk just hasn't been the same. But TE is trash, so you can't rank him lower. |
| 8 | Cameron Brate | vs. ATL | He has nine targets over the last three weeks combined, but two touchdowns. Boom-or-bust, for sure. |
| 9 | Chris Herndon IV | @ NE | Expect NE to put the clamps on Robby Anderson while Herndon does his thing yet again. |
| 10 | Austin Hooper | @ TB | He has seen three targets over the last two weeks, but this is a great M/U and it looks like Julio Jones and Tevin Coleman are iffy. |
| 11 | David Njoku | @ BAL | CLE said this game is their playoff game, and Njoku had 6-69 against this defense back in Week 5 (sure a lot has changed, but still). |
| 12 | Vance McDonald | vs. CIN | The Steelers are chasing the playoffs and this is a cheese matchup for a tight end. Still, you're hoping for a long gain or a score. |
| 13 | Kyle Rudolph | vs. CHI | I'll grant Rudolph high-end TE2 status this week, but I ain't ranking him as a TE1 after his horrible season. |
| 14 | C.J. Uzomah | @ PIT | He logged a 4-49-1 line last week and PIT allows the 8th most points to tight ends. |
| 15 | Jaylen Samuels | vs. CIN | If James Conner is back, I think we only see Samuel for a handful of plays--but that's enough to warrant TE2 status. |
| 16 | Jimmy Graham | vs. DET | The Lions fell asleep against Kyle Rudolph last week (9-122-2) so there's a chance, at least. |
| 17 | Trey Burton | @ MIN | The Bears have a slim shot at garnering the No. 2 seed, but Burton's low volume and that slim chance have me skittish this week. |
| 18 | Mark Andrews | vs. CLE | This feels like chasing after he broke free for a long gain last week, but there is some upside against CLE (10th most points to enemy TEs). |
| 19 | Gerald Everett | vs. SF | He has target counts of 7, 7, and 6 over the last three games, but he's done nothing with them. Still, the volume is worthy of this ranking. |
| 20 | Ian Thomas | @ NO | This is a brutal matchup (NO allows 5th fewest points to TEs) and the Panthers are on their third-string QB... |