As things are shaking out this early in the fantasy football season, tight end is a position that can be easily streamed. This is because from tight end eight or so through tight end twenty or so, any are candidates to score a touchdown and vault into the top ten among tight ends. Don’t forget, 35 different tight ends had top-five seasons last year, and 56 mustered top-ten weeks. Streaming tight end isn’t the worst idea in the world. With that in mind, here are this week’s streaming candidates. The first two are owned in less than 30% of Y! leagues and the final candidate is available in over 90% of leagues. Good luck.
Virgil Green versus Indianapolis (28% owned)
Given the buzz around Green this preseason, I was honestly surprised to find him available in over 70% of Yahoo! leagues. He was one of Trevor Siemian’s preferred targets last week, hauling in four of his five passing targets. He only managed 28 yards, but he was taking on the buzz saw Panthers linebacking corps, who weren’t about to yield a ton of yards to Green. This week is a different story, as the Broncos play a Colts team who just gave up a 5/46/1 line to Eric Ebron. With Demaryius Thomas potentially hobbled, I would imagine that more targets will go Green’s way, especially in the end zone. He’s a good bet for a score this weekend.
Jesse James versus Cincinnati (23% owned)
The matchup isn’t great, but the opportunity is. The Bengals allowed only one touchdown to tight ends last year, but they are without their star linebacker Vontaze Burfict. This will be a hard-fought, back-and-forth game, which tells me it will be a lot of Jesse James and DeAngelo Williams as the wide receivers get muscled up on. James had seven targets last weekend and hauled in five of them in the Heath Miller role in this offense. If you liked Heath Miller as a streaming candidate over the last couple of years, you’d like James in this matchup. He’s Big Ben’s preferred check down option through one game, so he’s especially relevant in PPR. Not a great bet to score a touchdown, but at least he isn’t touchdown dependent like most TEs in this range.
C.J. Uzomah at Pittsburgh (7% owned)
Last week I theorized it would be Tyler Kroft who filled in for the hobbled Tyler Eifert, but it was Uzomah who absorbed that role last week for the Bengals. He had five targets and hauled in two of them, including a long 54-yard catch and run. With the Bengals-Steelers game production coming incrementally, expect to see some more of the 6’6” Uzomah getting targets in the red zone and end zone as the Steelers do everything in their power to stop A.J. Green.