Four Emergency Fantasy Football Tight Ends To Replace George Kittle
Like last season, many fantasy owners find themselves scrambling to replace George Kittle. This time around it’s a little more serious, however, as Kittle was ruled out for the next eight weeks. Here we’ve got some TEs to hold you over and I promise Chris Herndon is not one of them.
Mike Gesicki, Dolphins. He’s totaled just three targets, one catch and eight yards over his last two games and his current owners will likely be cutting bait. These numbers are misleading. The Dolphins barely had the ball this Sunday (4th-lowest time of possession) and the previous game they steamrolled the Jets 24-0. I see those as outliers considering Gesicki saw eleven red-zone targets in the first five weeks of the season. The NFL’s RZT leader (Calvin Ridley) has 15 through 8 games played.
San Francisco 49ers tight end. New rule: If George Kittle is out, add Jordan Reed. If George Kittle is active, drop Jordan Reed. If George Kittle and Jordan Reed are out, add Ross Dwelley. The 49ers are sixth in the NFL in percent of targets going to the tight end.
Logan Thomas, Washington Football Team. He’s averaging one red-zone target per game, and with the dearth of receiving options in Washington, it’s hard to imagine that number going anywhere but up. Second-year WR Terry McLaurin is proving himself worthy of extra defensive attention, which will hopefully open up more targets for Thomas, who’s got the highest catch percentage of any tight end with more than 4 targets (86%).
Dalton Schultz, Cowboys. The fourth receiving option in a Ben DiNucci-led offense, what could go wrong? In all seriousness, if the 23-9 loss to Philadelphia was an indication of how the rest of the year may go, Schultz is in for a healthy target share. His touchdown ceiling is low due to Dallas’ stellar receiver and running back groups, but DiNucci looks game to feed his check-downs and safety valves, and last week that was Schultz. Also, in the only game Andy Dalton played start to finish, Schultz was targeted five times, catching four balls for 35 yards.