Ben Watson

Week 13 at Houston Texans
Ben Watson drew a single target in Week 12, and he remains off-the-radar as a fantasy starter in Week 13. Matt LaCosse returned to the lineup and outproduced Watson on 15 fewer snaps, and he caught one target for five yards. If that weren't enough, the Texans defense has been one of the stingiest in the NFL to the tight end position. Watson isn't seeing nearly enough of a target share to return value, and he should be left in the fantasy free-agent pool even in deeper leagues.

Week 11 at Philadephia Eagles
Ben Watson leads all Patriots tight ends in both snap share and target rate, but in a post-Gronk 2019, that's an incredibly low bar. Watson was not only the only Patriots tight end to play a down in Week 9 against Baltimore, but he also lined up for 100% of the Patriots' offensive plays, as New England lined up in 11-personnel (three wide receivers, one tight end, one running back) for every single play against the Ravens. Watson converted five targets into four receptions and just 28 receiving yards. Watson is averaging just 3.7 targets per game in 2019, and currently ranks as the fantasy TE61 through ten weeks. Unless the Patriots suddenly and drastically increase their tight end target share, Watson is best left in the free-agent pool. There is almost certainly a better option available to you for fantasy purposes in Week 11.

Week 8 vs Cleveland Browns
Ben Watson is back for a second tour with the Patriots, and he stepped into a commanding 76% snap share in Week 7. His 8.1% target rate was a direct result of him being essentially the only game in town at tight end with Ryan Izzo and Matt LaCosse inactive with injuries. Watson had a couple of key first downs in the game, and that kind of clutch reliability is certain to be rewarded to some extent with an increased target rate.

Watson's week to week fantasy viability is destined to be difficult to project, given Tom Brady's tendency to find the open receiver rather than heavily target a given player. The addition of Mohamed Sanu gives Brady a deep group of options among which Watson is at best fourth in line, but tight end is fairly shallow in 2019, and he's likely to be fantasy-viable moving forward. For Week 8, he's not startable as a top-24 tight end.