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Your fantasy football season is probably over, but if you are in a league where Week 17 determines who wins the championship, then your fantasy hockey and hoops plans have to be put on hold for another week.
Maybe your fantasy football league is a cumulative league and not a head-to-head league, so the stats in Week 17 are just as important as the stats in Week 1. Maybe your league has a two-week title game and combines the numbers of Weeks 16 and 17 together. Or maybe you are not alive in any league and just want to end the NFL’s regular season with a huge money-making win in a DFS tourney. Whatever the case, if you need a tight end, you are reading the right column.
Here are the top tight end candidates to pick up in fantasy football leagues heading into Week 17!
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Top Tight End Waiver Wire Options
Irv Smith Jr., Minnesota Vikings
15% rostered
Smith has had one of those on-and-off type of seasons that drive fantasy managers crazier than an inaccurate stat service. He was virtually invisible during the first month of the season, then had a couple decent games before suffering an injury that cost him some time. The super sophomore is now on the uptick after scoring five touchdowns over his past five games, a super stretch capped by a season-high six receptions and nine targets that he turned into two touchdowns on Christmas versus New Orleans.
With both Seattle and Atlanta playing improved pass defense in recent weeks, you can easily make the argument that the Detroit Lions have the worst pass defense in football right now. If you needed any proof, look no further than how Tom Brady threw for 347 yards and four touchdowns in one half against them this past Saturday. Smith hauled in two touchdown tosses from Kirk Cousins the last time he played the Lions. I would not be shocked if he repeated the feat this upcoming week.
Jimmy Graham, Chicago Bears
27% rostered
Graham might have won millions of fantasy managers millions of dollars this past Sunday. His two touchdown catches and season-high 69 yards came during the Super Bowl week for most fantasy leagues. Even with knobby knees, the longtime veteran can still make plays down the seems and around the end zone.
No offense in the NFL has turned things around quicker than Chicago’s. Mitchell Trubisky has transformed into the franchise quarterback the Bears assumed he would be. David Montgomery has turned into Gale Sayers. Allen Robinson is suddenly uncoverable. Now that the Bears offense is clicking, Graham gets more chances to make plays inside the red zone --- which usually leads to him ending up in the end zone. Graham will face Green Bay’s above-average pass defense, but the Packers have yielded four touchdowns to tight ends in their half-dozen games. Graham should do well again in Chicago’s regular-season swan song.
Other Tight End Options to Consider
Dawson Knox, Buffalo Bills
3% rostered
Buffalo’s present and future top tight end had reached the end zone in three of his past four games entering his Monday night matchup with New England. He will play against a Miami squad that had no coverage answers for Las Vegas standout Darren Waller in Week 16 and could allow Knox scoring opportunities in the red zone in the teams’ last game of the regular season.
Dan Arnold, Arizona Cardinals
2% rostered
Arnold is not a fantasy world beater by any stretch of the imagination, but Arizona’s best pass-catching tight end has four touchdowns over his last six games, which is probably better than most if not all tight ends available on your league’s waiver wire at the moment. His matchup against the L.A. Rams’ top-ranked pass defense is far, FAR from favorable, however.
Drew Sample, Cincinnati Bengals
1% rostered
Sample caught his first professional touchdown this past weekend. It only took him 24 games to do it, so he may be the next Mike Gesicki. Or maybe Joe Burrow was the problem when it came to Sample’s fantasy worth being next to nothing earlier this year. Sample’s fantasy future is brighter than his fantasy present, however, especially with Baltimore waiting in the wings. If you pick up Sample, let it be because of the long-term and not the short-term.
Don’t Forget About…
Chris Herndon, New York Jets
12% rostered
Don’t look now, but the Jets might be the next coming of the 1972 Miami Dolphins. Coming off back-to-back wins over the L.A. Rams and Cleveland Browns, the Jets are looking more like an NFL team than an XFL team for the first time this season. Herndon is better off with Sam Darnold at quarterback than Joe Flacco and has seven catches for 82 yards and a touchdown over his past two games. Herndon is a longshot play considering he did squat during the opening 14 weeks of the campaign, but he is hot and facing a New England squad with nothing to play for.
Dalton Schultz, Dallas Cowboys
20% rostered
Schultz’s name has gotten into this column for seemingly the 10th time in a row, but he keeps falling farther near the bottom with every passing week. He has not broken the 50-yard barrier in any of his past seven contests and probably will fail to again this week, although the N.Y. Giants team that will be defending him has allowed tight ends to either score a TD or have 75-plus yards in each of its past three games.
Jordan Akins, Houston Texans
5% rostered
Akins has squandered a huge opportunity to bump up his fantasy value while Houston’s receiving corps has been depleted. He has turned 16 targets into 12 receptions for 109 yards and zero scores over a recent three-game span. The big-bodied pass catcher could have a decent day against Tennessee’s 28th-ranked pass defense in Houston’s season finale, though.
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