Streaming Tight Ends: Week 4 Targets

Sep 25, 2018

It’s Week 4 guys and gals, and now’s the perfect time to evaluate your roster choices and gauge if the tight end you drafted is worthy of starting or if you’re better off hitting the waiver wire in search of a better option. If you purposely approached drafting the TE position with the intention of streaming weekly, I’ve got you covered there, too. As a strategy, streaming aims to find players with above-average matchups, which can hopefully translate to TE1 production for your fantasy squad.

For streaming purposes, 4for4’s Schedule-Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) is a metric we rely heavily on to determine weekly matchup strength. 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 choosing weekly streamers.

4for4 rankings also come into play here and should always be considered when making league-specific roster decisions.

The goal is to roster a player who will return TE1 fantasy points, and Week 3 didn’t quite hit the mark. Well, I suggested the duo of Jesse James/Vance McDonald so I’m counting it. McDonald finished as TE1 with 21.2 PPR points—I’ll take it. After three weeks of football, 4for4 streaming candidates are averaging 7.58 PPR fantasy points per game, which currently ranks as TE20. The optimal TE streamer has 47.9 PPR fantasy points, enough for TE2 on the season thus far. On to Week 4 and the players who can fill in on a bye week, bail you out of a bad draft choice, or simply provide the weekly streaming points you crave.

In order to provide advice you can actually implement, candidates for streaming must be owned in no more than 40 percent of Yahoo fantasy leagues.

Top Streaming Picks

Austin Hooper (Falcons) vs. Bengals

Through the first three weeks of the season, Hooper sits as TE13 in PPR points, averaging 9.2 per contest. He gets a home game on Sunday against a Bengals’ defense that’s ranked 30^th in the NFL in aFPA versus the TE position so far in 2018.

Atlanta’s offense has posted over 30 points in each of their last two games, and Hooper is currently tied for third among teammates in total number of targets with 13. The third-year TE is establishing himself as a part of the Falcons passing attack and at an ownership of 29 percent in Yahoo leagues, makes a nice streaming option for Week 4.