Fantasy Football Week 3 Tight End Preview: Projections, DFS plays, numbers to know and more

I’m sorry. I take all the blame.

Last week I wrote about how tight end might not be so horrible. Then just about every low-end tight end I said I was excited to watch went out and laid an egg. I take it all back. Tight end is, in fact, still terrible. And I say that as someone who fully expects Mark Andrews and George Kittle to rebound in Week 3.

It’s just Andrews and Kittle I’m leaving in my lineup. With Zach Ertz out, I’m going right back to Dallas Goedert. Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t get away from Jonnu Smith or Logan Thomas either. And this grace week extends to maybe the biggest disappointment of Week 2, Tyler Higbee.

Last year I told you how excited I was about Higbee because he played 100% of the snaps for the first time in his career. In Week 2 he again played 100% of the snaps, and caught one pass for eight yards. In Week 3 he’ll face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in what most predict to be a shootout, and I just don’t have the guts to dump this type of profile for Austin Hooper or Jack Doyle. 

I’m starting Higbee in redraft and I’m playing him in DFS. If you can’t stomach that, I have a streaming option for you below.

Here’s everything else you need to know about tight end in Week 3:

Week 3 TE Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 3 at this time. Here’s what it means:

• 16 — T.J. Hockenson leads all tight ends with 16 catches.
• 9 — George Kittle has nine targets in two games. It’s the first time since his rookie year that he’s received less than 10 targets in a healthy two-game regular season stretch.
• 104 — Kyle Pitts ranks fifth among all tight ends, with 104 receiving yards.
• 45.9% — Nearly half of Baker Mayfield’s pass attempts have gone to tight ends.
• 5 — Darren Waller already has five red-zone targets. He’s only scored on one of them.
• 30.8% — Rob Gronkowski has scored on 30.8% of his targets. He (probably) won’t keep this up.

So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has out-performed experts big-time.