2018 Fantasy Football: Week Seventeen Tight End Rankings

Rizzla presents his week seventeen rankings and takes a look back at the TE1’s from each quarter of the fantasy season.

With the fantasy football regular season now in the books we will spend this column taking a look at the TE1’s from each quarter of the season.

As maligned as the tight end position as a whole may have been during the 2018 fantasy season we have been witness to some historical performances including George Kittle’s 210 yard first half against the Broncos. Zach Ertz has already broken Jason Witten’s single season reception record and still has a game to go while Travis Kelce and George Kittle are both in the running to surpass Rob Gronkowski’ single season tight end receiving yards record. Kelce will break it while Kittle will have to have a big game and Mullens to be aware of what he’s chasing (see the aforementioned 210 yards and no second half targets to set record) to make it happen.

The first quarter of the fantasy season, while marred by injuries and ineffectiveness from what was thought to be one of the deepest tight end fields in recent memory, saw some breakout performances most notably from the first quarters number one tight end Jared Cook as well as Eric Ebron. Both of these tight ends had frustrated fantasy owners for years and seemed to finally be making good on their immense potentials.

The second quarter of the fantasy season was highlighted Zach Ertz’ tremendous target volume and percentage as he was rivaling WR1’s and looked to be on a pace to threaten Jason Witten’s single season tight end reception record. O.J. Howard continued to light up fantasy box scores despite rotating snaps with Cameron Brate while, much to chagrin of Julio Jones owners, the Atlanta Falcons Austin Hooper became a red zone favorite of Matt Ryan. Chris Herndon IV’s inclusion as a TE1 during this time period was one of the more underrated talking points as he outproduced pro bowl veterans Rob Gronkowski and Greg Olsen among others.

Following the Philadelphia Eagles’ acquisition of Golden Tate, Travis Kelce began to reassert himself as fantasy football’s top tight end as the Eagles force feeding Tate hurt the rest of the offense including stud tight end Ertz. There were several surprise names to make the third quarter TE1 list including Rams rotational tight end Gerald Everett who actually finished fifth as well as his teammate Tyler Higbee who was the TE12. Jonnu Smith who had struggled in the first half of the season finally began to prove why many in the fantasy community were so high on him and another tight end named Jeff Heuerman looked to become a favorite of the struggling Case Keenum, especially in the red zone.

Kyle Rudolph snuck his way back in to the TE1 ranks in the final quarter of the season with a huge week sixteen, making it the second time this season Rudolph found himself as a TE1. David Njoku clawed his way back to a TE1 finish for the second time this season while Ian Thomas finally showed up for the Carolina Panthers potentially making Greg Olsen a roster luxury for the 2019 season.

As always we will be updating our rankings up until kickoff so be sure to check back often for our latest updates and thoughts.