FANTasy Stud? Denver Broncos TE Noah Fant is Worth a Look

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“Rolls” Royce Freeman looked more like my old ’04 Ford Focus station wagon than he did a luxury vehicle on Sunday. My prediction of a breakout fell laughably short.

Freeman posted 15 yards on 5 carries, one catch for negative-one yard and notched his lowest snap count of 2019. My bad. Rookie tight end Noah Fant was a different story. The Iowa product secured three of his four targets for a career-high 115 yards and a touchdown. Plus, he had Denver’s most noteworthy play, bulldozing his way for a 75-yard touchdown.

 

It looked like the furthest thing from random. Fant, just 21-years old, used grown man strength taking this deep crosser to the house.

Is this a sign of things to come?

Despite his stranglehold on the Broncos’ starting tight end job and Joe Flacco’s propensity to boost his tight ends’ fantasy values, Fant racked up just 185 yards and one touchdown prior to Sunday’s win over Cleveland. That said, he’s on the incline. Fant accrued 20 targets in the first six weeks of the season before nearly matching that with 18 in the last three weeks.

Fant’s new quarterback, Brandon Allen played his first NFL game on Sunday. While this may have concerned Courtland Sutton fantasy owners, the new QB may boost Fant’s stock. We all know the old “security blanket” adage, referring to inexperienced quarterbacks leaning on their tight ends and check-down routes.

Allen, though, is no stranger to feeding tight ends. He had a great rapport with current Chargers’ tight end Hunter Henry at Arkansas; Henry’s 1,661 yards and 9 touchdowns came during the three seasons Allen started under center for the Razorbacks (2013-2015).

Fant’s snap counts have always been there and his raw talent was never in question. He’s 6-foot-4, 249 pounds, ran a 4.5 40-yard dash and bench-pressed 225 pounds 20 times. Denver used a first-round pick on Fant, something Denver doesn’t do often. The last time they drafted a tight end in the first round was in 1972 when they took Riley Odoms at No. 5 overall.

 

Considering the dearth of tight end production and Noah Fant being owned in less than eight percent of ESPN fantasy leagues, he is definitely worth a speculative add going into your FANTasy league playoff stretch.