Streaming Tight Ends: Week 5 Targets

Oct 04, 2016

So you missed out on a top-tier TE, or purposely chose to wait until later rounds with the strategy of streaming the position weekly? You’ve come to the right place. It’s time to assess your lineup and see if the TE you drafted is starter-worthy this week or if you are better off grabbing someone off the waiver wire who has an above average matchup which can hopefully translate to TE1 production.

The main focus of our research when looking at a TE’s matchup is 4for4’s Schedule-Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) metric. As the season continues to progress and more data is available, aFPA becomes more and more reliable, using rolling 10-week data. Targets and efficiency metrics are also considered when coming up with weekly TE streamers.

The goal in streaming is to roster a player that is going to return TE1 fantasy points and in Week 4, three out of my four picks finished among the top 12 at the TE position. Garett Celek put up 12.9 PPR fantasy points as TE9, Zach Miller’s 12.1 was good enough for TE11 and Cameron Brate racked up 11.7 PPR points, finishing the week as the 12th highest scoring TE.

After four weeks of football, 4for4 streaming candidates are averaging 8.3 PPR fantasy points per game, which currently ranks as TE20. The optimal TE streamer has a combined 48.0 PPR fantasy points, enough for TE5 on the season thus far. On to Week 5 where we begin bye weeks, and I provide you with a fresh batch of streaming targets who are ready to win you some matchups this week.

In order to provide advice that you can actually implement, candidates for streaming must be available in at least 40% of Yahoo fantasy leagues.

Jesse James (PIT) vs. NYJ

After taking the week off with a horrendous effort in Week 3 versus the Eagles, the Pittsburgh offense came roaring back on Sunday night with a 43-14 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Jesse James put up 9.5 PPR fantasy points and is currently sitting as TE16 overall through four weeks of play with a combined 32.5 PPR points.

This week, James will face off against the Jets defense, who have been soft versus the TE position with an aFPA of 16.4, ranked sixth-lowest in the league. While Sunday’s night’s trouncing showed that Ben Roethlisberger has plenty of offensive weapons, he likes to look for James in the red zone and should continue to do so moving forward.

As solid has James has been so far with Ladarius Green out until at minimum Week 7, the Steelers’ TE is currently owned in only 21% of Yahoo leagues.