Which tight end will shine in Week 2 for your fantasy football teams? We’ll take a look at all of them in our PPR rankings.
Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season reinforced what we should have already known, tight ends should be eliminated from fantasy football! Okay, okay, Let me take a step back here and check out the carnage before giving tight ends the boot.
This year, to start off the season, only one tight end saw 10 or more targets and that was Ravens backup, Isaiah Likely. Likely caught 9-of-12 targets for 111 yards and a touchdown. The next best tight end receptions and yardage for the week was Brock Bowers, who caught 6-of-8 targets for 58 yards. Overall, only five tight ends found the end zone for the week. Travis Kelce, Dalton Kincaid, Mark Andrews, and Evan Engram finished outside the Top 14 fantasy tight ends, while David Njoku looks like he will miss time with an injury.
These are the kinds of numbers that make you happy you waited on a tight end or sad if you didn’t. Usage will look up for some of these players, but when there aren’t many targets, we’re going to see weird fantasy finishes when fluky touchdowns are the only thing driving scoring for the position.
Njoku suffered a high-ankle sprain and is considered week-to-week at this point. If he truly has a high-ankle sprain, there’s little chance he’ll be able to play this week and be effective. Jordan Akins would probably take over as the lead tight end and has some 2TE league appeal.
Ferguson suffered an MCL sprain in Week 1 against the Browns. There appears to be some hope he can play this week against the Saints. If he can’t go, Luke Schoonmaker would likely get the start.
Parkinson caught 4-of-5 targets for 47 yards and was on the field for 88% of the snaps. With Puka Nacua on I.R., there will be chances for receivers not named Cooper Kupp and Parkinson appears set as the no-doubt starting tight end for the Rams.
Gesicki is the backup tight end on the Bengals, but he’s also the top receiving tight end. Last week in a slog of a game against the Patriots, Gesicki caught 3-of-4 targets, with the one miss being so-very-close-to-a-touchdown catch. They’ll face a Chiefs team that was just lit up by Isaiah Likely and will push the Bengals to throw more and pick up the pace.
Hill had 21 snaps and touched the ball six times for 36 yards. Unfortunately for PPR leagues, only one of those touches was a reception. Despite the lack of fantasy points, six touches is still a decent number for a tight end, especially in Week 1. He’s not safe, but I expect he’ll get more work this week against the Cowboys in a game the Saints shouldn’t run away with like they did Week 1 against the Panthers.
