As we turn our attention to fantasy football week seven, the tight end field gains clarity and some remain criminally under owned. Still, streaming is going to get more difficult, as people become hip on streaming tight ends and as bye weeks roll in to take their tolls, the streaming options become bleaker. This week we have two starting TE options on Bye to account for (Greg Olsen and Jason Witten) to account for, so it’s not too bad, but if your TE is ineffective, injured or if streaming was your preferred strategy, we are here to help. As always, the sleeper running backs start at under 50% ownership on Yahoo!, with one player under 10% ownership for deeper leagues. Ownership figures are as of Saturday afternoon.[embedit snippet=”jeff-ads”]
Cameron Brate @ San Francisco (28% owned)
There were early rumblings that Brate was quickly becoming the preferred tight end option in Tampa Bay that I did not believe because Austin Seferian-Jenkins is the more talented tight end in basically every way. A DUI charge later and ASJ is a Jet and Brate is becoming one of Jameis Winston’s favorite targets (though he’s always favored the TE). This week the Bucs travel to San Francisco with their terrible tight end defense that is without their only halfway decent coverage linebacker in NaVorro Bowman. He should get into the end zone this week, and is worth the grab just for the Make America Brate Again team name.
Jack Doyle @ Tennessee (26% owned)
Dwayne Allen left last week’s game with an ankle injury, and almost immediately Jack Doyle channeled the ghost of Coby Fleener and went for 53 and a score. Doyle’s two touchdowns week one still have him among the tops in the position in overall scoring, and with Allen sidelined, he should get a lot of work for an Indy squad that wants to pass to the tight end as much as possible. Tennessee isn’t a great matchup on paper as they are middle-of-the-road against tight ends, but given the Colts’ emphasis on the TE, he should get plenty of opportunity, as long as the Colts can keep Andrew Luck upright. He’s worth a play but is my least preferred of the three listed here.
Vernon Davis at Detroit (9% owned)
He’s back! The once relevant then completely irrelevant Vernon Davis has stepped up into the starting role in Washington with Jordan Reed dealing with yet another concussion. Kirk Cousins looked his way in the red zone last week, netting Davis his first touchdown since week one of 2014, back when we thought Colin Kaepernick was still going to be the next big thing. Since then he’s been traded, won a ring, and returned home to finish out his career. He goes to Detroit, who has allowed the third-most fantasy points to tight ends, yielding seven touchdowns to the position in six weeks.