Streaming Tight Ends: Week 2 Fantasy Football Targets

Sep 12, 2017

The NFL regular season is underway and it’s time to evaluate your roster choices and gauge if the TE you drafted is worthy of starting Week 2, 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, as well. 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 match up strength. Since aFPA requires a minimum of three to four weeks of data to provide truly reliable results, in these early weeks, streaming options will be selected based on a combination of opponents’ predicted fantasy points allowed, projected usage, and last season’s numbers.

The goal in streaming is to roster a player that is going to return TE1 fantasy points and my Week 1 started off right on track. My best streamer was Jesse James with 22.1 PPR points, followed by Charles Clay with 15.3 then Jared Cook’s 10.6, all within the top-10 TE performances of the week.

After one week of football, 4for4 streaming candidates are averaging 10.9 PPR fantasy points per game, which currently ranks as TE7. The optimal TE streamer has 22.1 PPR fantasy points, enough for TE1 on the season thus far. On to Week 2 and the players who can bail you out of a bad draft choice, or simply provide the weekly streaming points you crave.

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

Charles Clay (BUF) @ CAR

The Bills TE came up big for us in Week 1, with 15.3 PPR points versus a porous Jets DST. This week, Clay gets to go up against an even softer Panthers DST, whose aFPA was 15.5 points against TEs to start the season, as the fifth worst in the NFL. Last week, they allowed rookie TE George Kittle to score 7.7 PPR points in his NFL debut, with the 49ers only scoring three points total in the loss.

Clay scored the third highest fantasy points in Buffalo’s offense in Week 1, behind LeSean McCoy and QB Tyrod Taylor. Look for a similar output this weekend, as Taylor has come to count on Clay to produce in this ever-changing Bills offense. On only 10% of Yahoo players’ rosters, Clay makes a solid Week 2 pickup.

Continue reading for three more tight end streaming options, and four deep candidates...