Week 1 served as a perfect encapsulation of the weirdness we can expect at Tight End. Before the games even kicked off, the Las Vegas Raiders ruled Brock Bowers out after he underwent surgery to “trim” his meniscus. Colston Loveland scored as many points as I did in a game where his Chicago Bears dropped 59 points. Kyle Pitts built on his strong finish to last season by also failing to record a single fantasy point. Tyler Warren, Tucker Kraft, Sam LaPorta, and Harold Fannin Jr. all disappointed relative to their draft costs, with Warren being the only one to break double digits in PPR scoring. George Kittle, a surprise active for Week 1 coming off Achilles surgery, also failed to produce.
On the flip side, Isaiah Likely dominated for the New York Giants even with the return of Malik Nabers. Trey McBride continued to set the standard at the position in a tough-on-paper road match against the Los Angeles Chargers. Mike Gesicki and Dallas Goedert outperformed their more heralded teammates. Dalton Kincaid might finally be breaking out.
As Tight End scoring tends to be very touchdown-dependent, streaming the position makes a lot of sense. If we can identify favorable matchups and get lucky with touchdown scoring, we can keep pace with rosters that spent much higher draft capital on a position that tends to be the most high-variance each year. Whether you intended to use that strategy or you’re searching for some upside after your Tight End let you down, I’ll provide a few of my favorite options to stream each week among players you are likely to find on your waiver wire.
Cade Otton
Rostered in 11% of Sleeper leagues / 4% of Yahoo leagues / 3% of ESPN leagues
No one gets any style points for starting Cade Otton, but he seldom comes off the field and plays in a competent offense. That alone would make him an interesting streaming option coming off a five-target game. This week sets up particularly well for Otton, as he draws a home matchup with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns are completing a two-week trip to Florida after getting blown out 34-10 by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Cleveland’s defense, formerly the lone bright spot of the team, no longer features Myles Garrett. Perhaps equally impactful, the Browns made a change at Defensive Coordinator after declining to promote Jim Schwartz to Head Coach over the offseason. Tampa Bay should have plenty of chances to score, and Otton provides a big red zone target. While Otton certainly won’t fill the void left behind by Mike Evans, Otton’s size differentiates him from the rest of Tampa Bay’s receivers. If he falls into the end zone once, he likely finishes as a top-12 option.
Pat Freiermuth
Rostered in 10% of Sleeper leagues / 6% of Yahoo leagues / 14.6% of ESPN leagues
Pat Freiermuth didn’t dominate snaps to quite the level Otton did, but Freiermuth logged 73% of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps. More importantly, the Steelers came out throwing. In a game they never trailed by more than a possession and spent the entire second half in the lead, Pittsburgh let Aaron Rodgers attempt 40 passes. Predictably, most of those passes were close to the line of scrimmage, where Freiermuth does most of his work. Rodgers talked up his connection with Freiermuth shortly before the season began, and with Michael Pittman Jr. having missed some time towards the end of camp, it seems like Freiermuth’s unexciting role looks secure for now. The Steelers have a tougher matchup this week against the New England Patriots, but that should mean Pittsburgh remains a high-volume, if ineffective, passing offense. Freiermuth presents a safe bet for four-to-six targets with a strong red zone role should the Steelers find their way into scoring position.
Darren Waller
Rostered in 13% of Sleeper leagues / 2% of Yahoo leagues / 4% of ESPN leagues
Darren Waller finished Week 1 with a thoroughly unimpressive two receptions for 28 yards. Perhaps more concerningly, he played just 35% of the Panthers’ offensive snaps. As noted in our What We Saw article, however, Waller’s snaps largely translated to routes. As we don’t get points for blocking, we can live with a low snap count as long as Waller gets on the field for passing plays. Waller also had a touchdown called back by penalty on a play drawn up specifically for him, which should give us some optimism that Waller’s role could be fairly valuable as he works back into football shape after remaining unsigned for most of training camp. Waller popped for a few big weeks last season in a similarly limited role with the Dolphins, and the Panthers showed enough in Week 1 to provide hope that Bryce Young might be ready to lead a fun passing attack. Waller draws the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, a favorable matchup as the Falcons are missing their top pass rushers and should provide the Panthers plenty of red zone opportunities.
Feature image by Michael Packard (@CollectingPack on Twitter) / Photography by Rich von Biberstein/ Icon Sportswire