Fantasy Football: Week 1 TE Rankings
Kevin Hanson joins SI for the 2019 season. His fantasy rankings have placed him in the Top 20 in each of the past two seasons among all the industry experts tracked by FantasyPros.com, and he has been in the Top 25 in six of the past eight years.
Check out more of Kevin’s rankings: QB, RB, WR, flex, DST and kicker.
The long wait is almost over—Week 1 kicks off in just hours.
In addition to positional and flex rankings, I will highlight a player at each position that I like or dislike for the given week.
Baltimore lacks elite wide receivers although they drafted a pair of rookies—Marquise Brown (Round 1) and Miles Boykin (Round 4)—that enter the season as two of their top three receivers. But their best weapon in the passing game may be tight end Mark Andrews.
Looking back at rookie tight ends since 2000, only six of them had more receiving yards than Andrews had (552) last year. Only three had more than 600 yards, so the gap between Andrews’ rookie season and the best of the bunch isn’t very wide.
Going into year two, there was no shortage of glowing offseason reports for Andrews, who despite the team's run-first approach, could be poised for a breakout. The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec recently wrote that Andrews has been the team's "most dangerous and productive offensive player."
One of the strengths of Miami’s team, and there aren’t many of them, is their secondary, but they allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to opposing tight ends last season. Things were more difficult for opposing wide receivers (19th-most fantasy points allowed).
Jack Doyle > Eric Ebron? Both sit?
The retirement of Andrew Luck obviously hurts the offense overall, but it was a virtual certainty that Eric Ebron would have a less productive 2019 even if Luck did not retire.
Missing 10 games last season, Jack Doyle’s absence allowed Ebron to play more snaps than he would have with a healthy Doyle. When the two players were both active, Doyle played 332 snaps and Ebron played 165 snaps in those same six games.
Not only could Ebron play less than Doyle, but both tight ends also start with tough matchups early in the season. Only three teams have a lower implied total than the Colts (19.0) in Week 1—Miami (15.75), Washington (17.5) and Cincinnati (17.5).
While I have Ebron ranked one spot higher than Doyle, it’s possible that Doyle outperforms Ebron this week and this season. Even so, I have both ranked outside of my top-12 fantasy tight ends for the week.
Below are my fantasy football tight end rankings for Week 1 (half-PPR scoring):
• TE1: Travis Kelce, KC @ JAC
• TE2: George Kittle, SF @ TB
• TE3: Zach Ertz, PHI vs WAS
• TE4: O.J. Howard, TB vs SF
• TE5: Evan Engram, NYG @ DAL
• TE6: Hunter Henry, LAC vs IND
• TE7: Jared Cook, NO vs HOU
• TE8: Delanie Walker, TEN @ CLE
• TE9: Vance McDonald, PIT @ NE
• TE10: David Njoku, CLE vs TEN
• TE11: Austin Hooper, ATL @ MIN
• TE12: Mark Andrews, BAL @ MIA
• TE13: Kyle Rudolph, MIN vs ATL
• TE14: Greg Olsen, CAR vs LAR
• TE15: Darren Waller, OAK vs DEN
• TE16: Tyler Eifert, CIN @ SEA
• TE17: Jimmy Graham, GB @ CHI
• TE18: Eric Ebron, IND @ LAC
• TE19: Jack Doyle, IND @ LAC
• TE20: T.J. Hockenson, DET @ ARI
• TE21: Noah Fant, DEN @ OAK
• TE22: Gerald Everett, LAR @ CAR
• TE23: Dallas Goedert, PHI vs WAS
• TE24: Will Dissly, SEA vs CIN
• TE25: Vernon Davis, WAS @ PHI
• TE26: Jason Witten, DAL vs NYG
• TE27: Geoff Swaim, JAC vs KC
• TE28: Cameron Brate, TB vs SF
• TE29: Hayden Hurst, BAL @ MIA
• TE30: Mike Gesicki, MIA vs BAL
• TE31: Adam Shaheen, CHI vs GB
• TE32: Nick Vannett, SEA vs CIN
• TE33: Ian Thomas, CAR vs LAR
• TE34: C.J. Uzomah, CIN @ SEA
• TE35: Matt LaCosse, NE vs PIT
Below are my tight end rankings (non-PPR scoring) for Week 1:
• TE1: Travis Kelce, KC @ JAC
• TE2: George Kittle, SF @ TB
• TE3: Zach Ertz, PHI vs WAS
• TE4: O.J. Howard, TB vs SF
• TE5: Hunter Henry, LAC vs IND
• TE6: Evan Engram, NYG @ DAL
• TE7: Jared Cook, NO vs HOU
• TE8: Delanie Walker, TEN @ CLE
• TE9: David Njoku, CLE vs TEN
• TE10: Vance McDonald, PIT @ NE
• TE11: Mark Andrews, BAL @ MIA
• TE12: Austin Hooper, ATL @ MIN
• TE13: Greg Olsen, CAR vs LAR
• TE14: Darren Waller, OAK vs DEN
• TE15: Kyle Rudolph, MIN vs ATL
• TE16: Tyler Eifert, CIN @ SEA
• TE17: Eric Ebron, IND @ LAC
• TE18: Jimmy Graham, GB @ CHI
• TE19: Jack Doyle, IND @ LAC
• TE20: T.J. Hockenson, DET @ ARI
• TE21: Noah Fant, DEN @ OAK
• TE22: Will Dissly, SEA vs CIN
• TE23: Gerald Everett, LAR @ CAR
• TE24: Dallas Goedert, PHI vs WAS
• TE25: Vernon Davis, WAS @ PHI
• TE26: Jason Witten, DAL vs NYG
• TE27: Cameron Brate, TB vs SF
• TE28: Geoff Swaim, JAC vs KC
• TE29: Hayden Hurst, BAL @ MIA
• TE30: Adam Shaheen, CHI vs GB
• TE31: Mike Gesicki, MIA vs BAL
• TE32: Nick Vannett, SEA vs CIN
• TE33: Ian Thomas, CAR vs LAR
• TE34: C.J. Uzomah, CIN @ SEA
• TE35: Matt LaCosse, NE vs PIT
