Welcome to the midpoint of your fantasy season! I hope everyone reading this has a winning record. More than that, though, I hope you have one of the few tight ends worth sticking into your lineup on a weekly basis. Because if you don't, you're basically throwing a bottle rocket into a bonfire and hoping for a beautiful fireworks show instead of third-degree burns all over your face. Most tight ends are bad...is what I'm saying. But my job in this analogy is to steer you toward the sparklers and away from the blisters. So use my tight end rankings for Week 8 to light up your lineup (and not your face).
Target Monsters
Trey Burton secured the first 100+ yard game of his career with an 11 target game against the Patriots. The Bears' tight end had previously disappointed a lot of experts who believed Burton might be the second coming of Travis Kelce. But this game made that proclamation feel earned. Without a legitimate WR1 in the Chicago passing attack -- sorry ARob enthusiasts -- Mitch Trubisky should seek out his tight end quite a bit from here on out.
Forget last year, O.J. Howard is the preferred target for Jameis Winston at the moment. Howard saw 9 targets to Cameron Brate's 4 last week. Most tight ends don't produce until Year 2, and Howard is on track to produce big as a sophomore. He's a Top 10 tight end until further notice.
Only a handful of tight ends saw more than 5 targets in Week 7, so it's quite interesting that the Jets' Chris Herndon was one of them (with 7). Herndon was heavily featured because the team's receivers are dropping like flies. The Jets signed Rishard Matthews to help fill in the holes, so temper expectations for Herndon going forward.
Eric Ebron also saw 7 targets, which is a far cry from his 12 target average in Weeks 3-5. If Jack Doyle returns to the lineup, Ebron's value could start to wither. If Doyle's out another week, I still trust Ebron to deliver the goods in a plus matchup.
| Rank | Player | Team | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Travis Kelce | KC | DEN |
| 2 | George Kittle | SF | @ARI |
| 3 | Zach Ertz | PHI | @JAC |
| 4 | Jared Cook | OAK | IND |
| 5 | Eric Ebron | IND | @OAK |
| 6 | O.J. Howard | TB | @CIN |
| 7 | Trey Burton | CHI | NYJ |
| 8 | David Njoku | CLE | @PIT |
| 9 | Jimmy Graham | GB | @LAR |
| 10 | Vance McDonald | PIT | CLE |
| 11 | C.J. Uzomah | CIN | TB |
| 12 | Rob Gronkowski * | NE | @BUF |
| 13 | Kyle Rudolph | MIN | NO |
| 14 | Jordan Reed | WAS | @NYG |
| 15 | Evan Engram | NYG | WAS |
| 16 | Benjamin Watson | NO | @MIN |
| 17 | Greg Olsen | CAR | BAL |
| 18 | Ricky Seals-Jones | ARI | SF |
| 19 | Chris Herndon | NYJ | @CHI |
| 20 | Jeff Heuerman | DEN | @KC |
| 21 | Cameron Brate | TB | @CIN |
| 22 | Dallas Goedert | PHI | @JAC |
| 23 | Mike Gesicki | MIA | @HOU |
| 24 | Charles Clay | BUF | NE |
| 25 | Mark Andrews | BAL | @CAR |
| 26 | Jack Doyle * | IND | @OAK |
| 27 | Jesse James | PIT | CLE |
| 28 | Nick O'Leary | MIA | @HOU |
| 29 | Nick Vannett | SEA | @DET |
| 30 | Gerald Everett | LAR | GB |
* Denotes injured player. Monitor status leading up to game time.
