Streaming Tight Ends: Week 7 Targets

Oct 20, 2015

For those new to tight end streaming, the idea is to identify a waiver wire tight end with a favorable matchup that is likely to post TE1 caliber fantasy points. The foundation for the matchup research is 4for4’s Schedule-Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) metric. As the season progresses and more data becomes available, aFPA gets more and more reliable. Volume and efficiency metrics are also considered when searching the waivers for tight end streamers.

Week 6 was not the week for tight end streaming truthers, as 10 of the top 12 fantasy tight ends were not streaming eligible. The two available tight ends that did crack the top 12, Ben Watson and Dion Sims, were off the fantasy radar.

Given the down week for streamers as a whole, 4for4 streaming options are now averaging 8.8 PPR fantasy points per game with the optimal streaming candidate averaging 13.7 PPR fantasy points, or production that equates to the TE7 on the season (minimum three games played).

Streaming candidates must be available in at least 40% of Yahoo leagues, in order to ensure that the picks are readily available in most leagues. As always, be sure to consider 4for4’s weekly rankings in case a highly ranked player is still available in your league.

Here are the tight end streaming picks for Week 7:

Kyle Rudolph (MIN) @ Detroit

After being drafted as a top 12 tight end in many leagues, Minnesota’s anemic offense has caused Kyle Rudolph’s ownership percentage in Yahoo leagues to drop to just 50%. This week, the Vikings face the Lions who rank 25th in tight end aFPA, giving up 14.1 adjusted PPR points per game to the position.

In his first game against Detroit this year, Rudolph finished as the PPR TE7, and in two games against teams ranked in the bottom 20 in aFPA to tight ends, the Vikings tight end has averaged 12.2 PPR fantasy points. Rudolph’s seven red zone targets rank 6th in the league among tight ends, matching the number of red zone looks of Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham.