4 Ideal Late-Round TE Pairings and When to Draft Them

Jul 28, 2017

When it’s time to walk in, or pull up a chair to begin our fantasy drafts, there are a myriad of approaches or strategies to take into consideration at the TE position. More than any other position, TE sees a huge disparity between the top few players and the remainder of the pack. Drafters can choose to pay up and grab one of the select tier-one guys, wait a bit and draft a mid-round serviceable TE with upside, or decide to stream the position with a pair of TEs based on their individual matchups.

Other Late-Round Pairings: QB | D/ST

If the streaming option aligns with your personal strategy for roster construction in 2017, this piece will provide you with a visual idea of how various streaming pairings will look, and possibly perform this season. By examining 4for4’s Hot Spots: Team Level SOS by Position, we can assemble some ideal TE tandems who, together, can potentially achieve TE1 numbers based on their teams’ strength of schedule.

Only TEs ranked beyond the top-12 were considered here¹, under the assumption that drafters are utilizing later round players for streaming purposes. If you’re debating the streaming option in any redraft leagues this season, grabbing one of these TE duos may give you an edge over your fellow drafters, who might not consider this line of research. So grab your favorite beverage, and perhaps a snack, and check out some of my favorite TE streaming pairs for the 2017 NFL season.

David Njoku, Browns with Austin Hooper, Falcons

Based on the composition of the schedules for Atlanta and Cleveland, this young tandem has the potential to offer solid TE1 numbers this season. Rookie TEs in the NFL don’t exactly have the best track record, but considering the Browns' super-soft schedule versus the TE, Njoku (TE18) is certainly worthy of consideration in 2017. Hooper (TE21) is capable of TE1 numbers alone, but the Browns TE serves as a nice accompaniment.

You’ll notice that the Browns’ first five games are versus weak or moderately weak defenders against the TE position, highlighted by a Week 4 tilt against the Bengals, the 30th ranked defense in the league against TE, according to aFPA.

In Week 6, the Falcons are just coming off of their bye week and will have a stretch of five straight games against weaker TE defenses. The beauty of this E duo, is that from Week 10 on, both of their schedules are favorable, allowing you to insert the player who is performing better in their respective offense into your lineup with little worry of the matchup.

Based on current ADP, here are the ideal spots to draft this TE tandem: