Streaming Tight Ends: Week 17 Fantasy Football Targets

Dec 26, 2017

If you’re reading this your fantasy league runs until Week 17, or you just can’t get enough of TE streaming. It’s the final week of the NFL regular season so it is imperative to have the best possible roster at your disposal. Is the TE you drafted, starter-worthy this week or are you better off grabbing someone off the waiver wire to get the TE1 production your team needs to win it all?

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.

Week 16 was perhaps my best of the season, as my three recommended TEs landed in the Top 12 in PPR points. Antonio Gates was the highest-scoring TE of the week with 20.1 PPR points, followed directly behind by Eric Ebron with 19.3. Ben Watson’s 9.0 was good enough for TE12, while Vernon Davis, who was in my other recommendations located at the end of the article, checked in as TE8 with 12.2 points. After 16 weeks of football, 4for4 streaming candidates are averaging 8.9 PPR fantasy points per game, which currently ranks as TE13. The optimal TE streamer has 268.7 PPR fantasy points, enough for TE1 on the season thus far. On to Week 17 and the players who’ll help you get that championship win if it’s still up for grabs.

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

Antonio Gates (LAC) vs. OAK

With Hunter Henry on the shelf for the season, Gates gets the start for the second straight week. He nabbed six balls for 81 yards and a touchdown against the Jets in Week 16 and draws a favorable matchup against the Raiders for the final game of the regular season.

Oakland is ranked 21st in TE aFPA and is mathematically eliminated from the postseason, while the Chargers are still alive and will be playing for an elusive wild card spot in the AFC. Gates and QB Philip Rivers have a long history together, and Rivers knows he can count on his veteran TE in clutch situations.

At an ownership of 22% in Yahoo Leagues, Gates is a great play this week.