Streaming Tight Ends: Week 5 Targets

Sep 30, 2014

Of all the “onesie” positions, tight end is clearly the most volatile, especially when it comes to weekly streaming. Relative tight end usage is generally low, and if you play in a standard league, the difference between an acceptable fantasy day and an outright dud usually comes down to if your tight end scores a touchdown or not. The tools available to 4for4 subscribers take the arduous task of combing the waiver wire for tight end help and allows us a process we can be confident in.

Schedule Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed, The Player Snap App, and The Target Report are the backbone of my research for the TEBWW column and are tools that present fantasy owners with a clear understanding of matchups and usage trends. One of the most useful metrics found in the Snap App is Fantasy Points per Snap (FP/Snp). FP/Snp explains actual player success much better than a quick glance at raw fantasy points scored, and can be one of the best predictors of future success when targeting players that should see an uptick in usage.

Travis Kelce, who’s been a TEBWW pick in 3 of the first 4 weeks, has been the poster child for FP/Snp so far in this young season. Through 3 weeks, Kelce’s 0.34 PPR/Snp was the 4th best among tight ends in the league and 3rd best of tight ends that had played at least 25% of their team snaps. A breakout game from the Chief’s tight end was inevitable, and he turned in a top 3 performance on Monday Night with 23.3 PPR FP.

Injuries slowed down the rest of our Week 4 TEBWW recommendations. Ladarius Green was active, but didn’t play any snaps after a midweek hamstring Injury, and Niles Paul played just 21 snaps before suffering a concussion, but still salvaged the day with 9 PPR FP (TE14). Owen Daniels was underwhelming but serviceable with 8.3 PPR FP (TE17).

After 4 weeks of streaming, our tight end streamers are averaging 10.6 PPR FP which equates to the overall TE12 on the season. Our optimal picks are averaging 17.2 PPR FP, good enough to be the TE5.

Let's take a look at this week's streaming candidates...