Fantasy football is a game where you create and manage a virtual team of real-life football players. Each week, your players earn points based on their actual on-field performance. You compete against other participants in your league by setting your lineup and aiming to outscore your opponent. Fantasy football involves making weekly decisions and adds an extra level of interest to the football season.
Start ‘Em: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens (vs. CIN)
Last week, Hunter Henry was the top recommended streaming option even though he was coming off a series of underwhelming efforts. He delivered with 24.5 fantasy points on a 7-115-1 line. Why? He faced the Cincinnati Bengals.
It’s impressive how bad the Bengals are at covering tight ends. They are lapping the field in terms of fantasy points per game allowed to the position. No one comes close.
Mark Andrews is very much a player in decline. He hasn’t seen more than five targets or caught more than three passes in a game since Week 6. By no means is he an every-week fantasy starter. But against the Bengals, start every tight end.
Joe Burrow is expected to return on Thursday. But even if he doesn’t, the Bengals should be able to score enough to make this competitive. And the Ravens really need to get the offense going.
As much as Andrews can’t do what he used to, he can still score touchdowns. Fire him up in the best matchup possible. For a bonus, Isaiah Likely is in play this week as well.
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints (at MIA)
As it turns out, it was the disastrous run from Weeks 4-6 that was the outlier, not Juwan Johnson’s emergence into a viable TE1. Amazingly, outside of that three-week stretch, Johnson has hit double-digit fantasy points in every other game this season. He’s now done it in five consecutive games, which included a switch from Spencer Rattler to Tyler Shough at quarterback.
It’s hard to say if the New Orleans Saints trading away Rashid Shaheed had anything to do with it, but regardless, Johnson is now the clear second option in the passing game behind Chris Olave. His importance will only continue to grow with Alvin Kamara set to miss time with a sprained MCL.
The Miami Dolphins have been a bit better defensively as of late. They will be rested coming off their bye. But they still struggle against the tight end, allowing the sixth-most fantasy points per game to the position. Johnson is very much a top 12 option this week.
Sit ‘Em: Colston Loveland, Chicago Bears (at PHI)
Colston Loveland is coming off his second-best performance of the season. Against the Steelers, the Chicago Bears’ rookie tight end posted 14.9 fantasy points. We take that all day from any tight end. But if not for a touchdown, it would’ve been another disappointing effort.
While Loveland has overtaken Cole Kmet as the primary TE, the two are still splitting time. Loveland only ran a route on 68% of Caleb Williams’ dropbacks.
The rookie has now seen more than five targets in a game just once all season. Unsurprisingly, that came in the one game Kmet missed.
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Loveland is still a viable fantasy tight end alongside Kmet. He’s just going to be far more sensitive to the matchup. And this is not a good one.
The Eagles allow the second fewest fantasy points per game to the tight end position. Chicago is going on the road in a hostile environment to take on a team coming off a dreadful second-half collapse in a defeat to their division rival. It’s a really bad spot for a team coming off a big win and a great performance. Expect a dud from Loveland this week.
Hunter Henry, New England Patriots (vs. NYG)
In general, we want to attack this New York Giants defense. They are not very good. But there are a couple of reasons to hesitate before reinserting Hunter Henry into lineups.
It’s easy to look at what Henry did last week and go right back to him. How do you bench someone who just caught seven passes for 115 yards and a touchdown at fantasy’s weakest position?
Every tight end destroys the Bengals. That is not the case against the Giants, who have actually been pretty solid against the position. New York is allowing the 10th-fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends. They just fired their defensive coordinator, which typically leads to at least a mild improvement in the next game. Plus, the Giants are terrible against every other position.
Drake Maye should be able to feed his wide receivers in this one. Plus, we’ll get a heavy dose of TreVeyon Henderson. Henry may be left fighting for scraps.
