With yet another six-team bye week, plenty of fantasy owners had to scramble to the waiver wire and their bench to fill their empty slots. Luckily, the tight end position wasn’t hit too hard this week with the only fantasy relevant tight ends on a bye being Vernon Davis and Julius Thomas who is injured anyway. The others are Brandon Myers, Delanie Walker, Rob Housler, and Detroit’s tight ends. No big losses there.
This week, the most statistically-unfavorable matchups belong to key guys like Rob Gronkowski, Jordan Reed, and Tony Gonzalez. In reality, the Steelers haven’t faced any tight ends of Gronk’s level. They’ve held every tight end they’ve faced to fewer than seven points but have only seen Delanie Walker, Kyle Rudolph, Jeff Cumberland, Dallas Clark, Cincy’s tight ends, and Oakland’s tight ends. In the Cincy game, they didn’t allow more than 6.6 points to either tight end but they did allow 13.2 combined points. The matchup for Gronk isn’t as bad as it may look and he remains a must-start.
On the other hand, since giving up a big game to Owen Daniels and Garrett Graham in Week 1, the Chargers have held guys like Jason Witten and Coby Fleener to fewer than 4.3 points so Jordan Reed may have a tough time against their improving defense.
The Panthers have allowed big games to Tim Wright and Kyle Rudolph in the last three weeks and, if Tony Gonzalez can rein in more passes than he has in the last two weeks, he should be just fine against Carolina.
The other tough matchups belong to Scott Chandler, Delanie Walker, Tim Wright, Mychal Rivera, Zach Sudfeld, Brent Celek, and the Chiefs tight ends. None of those guys are startable in most leagues anyway so no loss there. The Pats have been tough on tight ends too and Heath Miller is a very iffy start for this week.
On the flip side, Martellus Bennett, Jordan Cameron, Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, Jimmy Graham, and Greg Olsen are must-starts in their matchups. Cincy’s Tyler Eifert and Jermaine Gresham combo has a favorable matchup but haven’t been able to break out. Kyle Rudolph looks like a solid start against the shaky Cowboys defense and Andrew Quarless could be a sneaky value tight end play in place of the injured Jermichael Finley.
Let’s take a look at all of this week’s tight end matchups.
Browse Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE
 Highly Unfavorable, Unfavorable, Neutral, Slightly Favorable, Favorable
|
Rank |
AVG |
Defense |
Week 9 Opponents |
|
1 |
3.66 | Chiefs | Scott Chandler |
|
2 |
4.94 | Steelers | Rob Gronkowski |
|
3 |
5.44 | Rams | Delanie Walker |
|
4 |
5.69 | Seahawks | Tim Wright |
|
5 |
5.74 | Eagles | Mychal Rivera |
|
6 |
5.98 | 49ers | BYE |
|
7 |
6.14 | Saints | Zach Sudfeld |
|
8 |
6.33 | Raiders | Brent Celek |
|
9 |
6.66 | Bengals | Charles Clay |
|
10 |
6.80 | Chargers | Jordan Reed |
|
11 |
6.96 | Lions | BYE |
|
12 |
7.01 | Panthers | Tony Gonzalez |
|
13 |
7.04 | Bills | Anthony Fasano, Sean McGrath |
|
14 |
7.10 | Patriots | Heath Miller |
|
15 |
7.16 | Colts | Garrett Graham |
|
16 |
7.39 | Texans | Coby Fleener |
|
17 |
8.41 | Browns | Dallas Clark, Ed Dickson |
|
18 |
8.47 | Falcons | Greg Olsen |
|
19 |
8.50 | Buccaneers | Zach Miller |
|
20 |
8.51 | Jets | Jimmy Graham |
|
21 |
9.20 | Vikings | Jason Witten |
|
22 |
9.26 | Redskins | Antonio Gates |
|
23 |
9.54 | Titans | Jared Cook, Lance Kendricks |
|
24 |
9.59 | Ravens | Jordan Cameron |
|
25 |
9.71 | Giants | BYE |
|
26 |
9.73 | Broncos | BYE |
|
27 |
9.74 | Bears | Andrew Quarless |
|
28 |
10.49 | Cowboys | Kyle Rudolph |
|
29 |
10.55 | Jaguars | BYE |
|
30 |
11.04 | Packers | Martellus Bennett |
|
31 |
11.47 | Dolphins | Jermaine Gresham, Tyler Eifert |
|
32 |
15.11 | Cardinals | BYE |
*Values based on Yahoo standard scoring.
Browse Matchups by Position: QB – RB – WR – TE
