The gap between tight end haves and have-nots has narrowed lately, but not necessarily because there’s been a sudden influx of viable young starters or anything. No, unfortunately it’s because the elite of the position haven’t shown up lately.
Dallas Goodert hope to be back from IR this week, but Travis Kelsey is averaging just 12.1 PPR points over the past three years, well below his season average, and Mark Andrews has been even worse – it hasn’t reached double Fantasy scores in its last four games. Kelce is still TE3 in this time frame, so I can’t say I’m too worried about him.
Godert and Andrew? Yes, I have a few questions, so before I get to my close-ended Week 16 rankings, here are my thoughts on three big positional questions:
Where will Dallas Goedert rank if he plays?
I thought Goedert would play last week, but he wasn’t cleared in the end, so I’ll wait to rank him until we know he’s playing. If he does, he’ll definitely be one of the top five options and could go all the way to No. 1. IR, but Goedert was so good before his injury – and the tight end is so bad – that I’m ready to roll the dice. It doesn’t hurt that Goedert caught six passes for 105 yards and two scores in the only game he played with. Gardner Minshew last season. The projected loss of Jalen hurts is negative for Eagles the offense as a whole, obviously, but Minshew is a good enough passer that it won’t be a disaster.
Is Mark Andrews still a must-have TE?
I can’t help but think we’re going to find out after the season that Andrews hasn’t been healthy for much of it. Through the first six games, Andrews was on pace for career-best 110 catches, 1,289 yards and 14 touchdowns. However, he was held without a grip in Week 7, then missed most of Week 8 and all of Week 9 with knee and shoulder injuries, and he hasn’t been the same since. He’s passed for 55 yards only once in his last five games, posting a catch rate of 54.3 percent and just 42.8 yards per game. lamar jacksonThe absence of obviously didn’t help. I still wouldn’t be able to bring myself to seat Andrews despite his struggles – especially if Jackson has returned from his own knee injury – but it’s hard to see Andrews as an obvious difference-maker at this point.
Is Chigoziem Okonkwo an essential TE?
It’s solidly a TE capable of starting, but I’m not ready to go much further. There’s clearly a pretty solid skill set here, and he’s going to be a very popular candidate this offseason as we gear up for the 2023 season. But it’s important to keep some perspective here – he has more than five targets in a game only once and has yet to go past 70 yards. Its role in the Titans The offense is growing, but he’s still not a full-fledged player – he’s only exceeded 50% snap share twice, although both have come in the past three weeks. He has a good game against a bad one Texas defense this week, but with Ryan Tannehill again aggravating his ankle injury, this could be a very heavy game scenario for the Titans, which makes it harder for Okonkwo to come out on top. He is in the marginal TE1 level for me.
Here is my Week 16 tight end ranking:
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- Travis Kelce vs. SEA
- TJ Hockenson vs. NYG
- Dallas Goedert @DAL
- Mark Andrews vs. ATL
- George Kittle vs. HAS BEEN
- Darren Waller @PIT
- Dalton Schultz vs. ISP
- Evan Engram @NYJ
- David Njoku vs. NOPE
- Cole Kmet vs. BUF
- Gerald Everett @IND
- Pat Freiermuth vs. LV
- Greg Dulcich @LAR
- Dawson Knox @CHI
- Tyler Higbee vs. LAIR
- Taysom Hill @CLE
- Chigoziem Okonkwo vs. HOO
- Noah Fant @KC
- Robert Tonyan @MIA
- Daniel Bellinger @MIN
- Tyler Conklin vs. JAX
- Hunter Henry vs. RIC
- @JuwanJohnson @CLE
- Cameron Brat @ARI
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