Fantasy Football Week 2 Tight End Preview: Potential George Kittle replacements

Our favorite adds at the beginning of the week were Gerald Everett and Tyler Higbee, and to be honest, if George Kittle is your only tight end, you should already have one of them. But I can understand if you don’t want to play Everett on Thursday because you want to wait it out on Kittle. I would not, but I understand it. So, you’ll find potential Kittle replacements in the waiver section later in this article. First, maybe I should explain why I’d prefer to just start Everett.

This doesn’t have much to do with my confidence level in Everett. He’s a fine stream, but that doesn’t signify a high floor or ceiling. The tight end position is that bad. It’s just that I’m not sure Kittle has a high floor or ceiling in this offense either.

What we’ve seen from Trey Lance as a passer is that he can do things down the field and outside the numbers that we’ve really never seen Jimmy Garoppolo do. We’ve also seen Lance struggle with throws that Garoppolo and most quarterbacks in the league make look easier. That’s likely just inexperience, and this is not to dump on Lance. But with him at quarterback we should expect a low volume pass offense with passes that are not particularly accurate. Considering Kittle already has to fight off Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk for targets, that’s concerning.

None of this is to say that Kittle is already a bust. He hasn’t even played yet, and we haven’t seen Lance play in decent weather yet this year. But for what it’s worth, there’s a significant chance of rain in San Francisco on Sunday as well. 

To be clear, I’d still start Kittle over any of the streamers listed below if he’s active. I just won’t do so with very high expectations.

Here’s everything else you need to know about tight end in Week 2:

Week 2 TE Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 2 at this time. Here’s what it means:

• 10 — An astonishing 10 targets for Pat Freiermuth in Week 1. He also led the Steelers with 75 receiving yards. He may be a must-start tight end.
• 23.4% — Mark Andrews led the Ravens with a 23% target share. Don’t worry about the Week 1 hiccup.
• 0 — Cole Kmet did not record a catch or a Fantasy point in Week 1. That makes him tough to trust this week.

• 2 — O.J. Howard caught both of Davis Mills‘ touchdown passes, but those were his only two targets in the game. He’s stash-worthy, but you shouldn’t start him until he plays more snaps.
• 41% — Mike Gesicki only ran a route on 41% of the Dolphins pass plays. It’s just one game, so I understand if you want to hold him, but Gesicki looks like he’s headed to the waiver wire.
• 89 — Kyle Pitts now has 89 yards in three career games against the Saints. It doesn’t get much easier in Week 2 against the Rams.