Week 5 Fantasy Football Defensive Matchup Exploitation: TE

Antonio Gates
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Antonio Gates
Sep 29 2013 San Diego CA USA San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates 85 scores a touchdown on a 56 yard pass play from quarterback Philip Rivers not pictured during second half action against the Dallas Cowboys at Qualcomm Stadium Robert Hanashiro USA TODAY Sports

While other defensive matchup stats are reliable, tight end points vary greatly since the disparity between good tight ends and the rest of the league is so wide. The Pats had only faced Scott Chandler, Kellen Winslow, and Tampa Bay’s seemingly tight end-less offense before running into Tony Gonzalez in Week 4 and giving up massive points.

With that in mind, Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert don’t figure to have as tough a matchup as it would seem and remain startable. On the other hand, Coby Fleener is going to have a real tough time against the Seahawks and Scott Chandler, Martellus Bennett, and Jermichael Finley all figure to have their hands full as well.

Tony Gonzalez, Jordan Cameron, and Rob Gronkowski (assuming he plays) have fairly unfavorable matchups but remain must-starts as three of the few elite tight ends in the NFL.

In the green, we see Greg Olsen with a great matchup against the Cardinals D and Dallas Clark against Miami. Mychal Rivera, Charles Clay, Brandon Pettigrew, Sean McGrath, and Brent Celek all have favorable matchups but aren’t exactly “must-starts”. Antonio Gates against the Raiders, on the other hand, looks like a big game waiting to happen.

Let’s look at all of the tight end matchups around the league in Week 5.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable

Rank
vs
TE

AVG
TE
FPS
Allowed

Defense

Week 5 Opponents

1

 2.1 Patriots Jermaine Gresham, Tyler Eifert

2

 2.9 Panthers Rob Housler, Jim Dray

3

 3.17 Seahawks Coby Fleener

4

 3.33 Chiefs Delanie Walker (Q)

5

 3.7 Browns Scott Chandler

6

 4.67 Jets Tony Gonzalez

7

 4.77 Saints Martellus Bennett

8

 5.03 49ers Owen Daniels, Garrett Graham

9

 5.3 Lions Jermichael Finley

10

 5.5 Texans Vernon Davis

11

 5.67 Bengals Rob Gronkowski (Q), Zach Sudfeld

12

 5.83 Bills Jordan Cameron

13

 6.07 Steelers BYE

14

 6.5 Eagles Brandon Myers

15

 7.5 Rams Clay Harbor, Marcedes Lewis (Q)

16

 7.93 Broncos Jason Witten

17

 8.77 Bears Jimmy Graham

18

 8.77 Cowboys Julius Thomas

19

 9.07 Jaguars Jared Cook

20

 9.1 Colts Zach Miller

21

 9.63 Falcons Jeff Cumberland, Kellen Winslow

22

 9.83 Raiders Antonio Gates

23

 10.97 Redskins BYE

24

 11.47 Giants Brent Celek

25

 11.6 Titans Sean McGrath, Anthony Fasano (Q)

26

 11.7 Packers Brandon Pettigrew

27

 11.8 Ravens Charles Clay

28

 12.7 Chargers Mychal Rivera

29

 13.5 Dolphins Dallas Clark, Ed Dickson

30

 13.87 Buccaneers BYE

31

 17.17 Vikings BYE

32

 18.87 Cardinals Greg Olsen

*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.

Browse Defensive Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE

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Igor Derysh
Igor Derysh is Editor-at-Large at XN Sports and has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and FantasyPros. He has previously covered sports for COED Magazine, Fantasy Alarm, and Manwall.com. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');
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