Streaming Tight Ends: Week 17 Targets

Dec 23, 2014

If you’re still playing in Week 17, congratulations on making it to your league championship, and my condolences for having a commissioner that would let the champions fate be decided in the always fluky Week 17. Luckily for 4for4 subscribers, Josh Moore has provided a breakdown of which teams have something to play for and which teams are already packing it in for the regular season.

The most glaring Week 17 impact at tight end is for Rob Gronkowski owners. With the #1 seed locked up, the Patriots have no reason to play their starters for the whole game and Gronk owners will be scouring waivers for a viable replacement.

In Week 16, Scott Chandler performed as expected in Oakland (13.7 PPR points), Jared Cook had a solid outing (9.1 PPR points), and Mychal Rivera disappointed (1.5 PPR points). Through 16 weeks, our TEBWW picks have averaged 8.0 PPR points, which extrapolates to the overall TE16, while optimal streaming picks have posted 13.5 PPR points per game, good enough to be the TE4 on the season.

Here are the top TEBWW options for the final week of the NFL regular season. All TEBWW candidates are available in at least 40% of Yahoo leagues:

Scott Chandler vs New England

For the second straight week, the Bills tight end tops our tight end streaming picks. As mentioned in the intro, the Patriots have already clinched the #1 seed in the AFC and are unlikely to play their starters for more than a quarter or two. Even at full strength, the Patriots rank 30th in the league vs tight ends when adjusted for strength of schedule, allowing 16.2 PPR points per game to the position.

Chandler has faced 5 teams ranked in the bottom half of the league in aFPA to tight ends and has averaged over 13 PPR points in those matchups. With backups playing on both sides of the ball for New England, the Bills stout defense should give the offense favorable field position more often than not, which will yield increased red zone opportunities for Chandler. Chandler is owned in just 8% of Yahoo leagues.