7) Evan Engram vs. Giants
Revenge game narrative, anybody? I don’t typically put any stock in those types of things, but in this case, I’m willing to bite. He has only faced his former team one time, while a member of the Jaguars, and he didn’t exactly light the world on fire in that game with 4 grabs for 67 yards. What I like more about this matchup is the fact that Engram appears to finally be healthy after missing two games to start this season and slowly ramping up each week after appearing in Week 3 against the Titans. Over his last 3 games, he has garnered 7, 6, and 6 targets, and he has just looked more comfortable operating in this offense with Bo Nix. Last week’s game in London was a complete slog, and he was able to convert his 6 targets into 5 grabs for 42 yards. Most intriguing about Engram for this week is a Giants team that has really struggled with covering the tight end this season. We just saw what Dallas Goedert did against them on Thursday night, so let’s get Engram in our lineups and hope for maybe half of the 29 PPR points that the Eagles TE was able to put up.
8) T.J. Hockenson vs. Eagles
If you drafted Hock in the 6th or 7th round as one of the top 5 tight ends off the board, you have to be looking at him at this point like he’s that one friend that you have no idea why you’re still friends with. Not only does he drive you crazy every time you’re near him, but he also now owes you money. Enough is enough, and this week, he had better pay us back, or we are completely done with him. Before their Week 6 bye, the Vikings looked like they were really trying to get their big tight end involved more in their game plan, as he was targeted six times for the second time this season. He grabbed all 6 of those targets for a big fat 38 yards without a score. Those numbers are great for somebody like Cade Otton, but this guy had almost 1,000 yards two years ago in a season that was cut short by injury. This week, we expect the Vikings to go back to J.J. McCarthy under center, and we are rolling the dice that they spent the bye week streamlining their pass attack to feature Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and T.J. Hockenson in a nice, tight target tree that will feed all three players without the benefit of immense volume. The Eagles have been tough against tight ends this season, but with enough volume, Hock should still finish as a top 10 option.
9) Cade Otton @ Lions
Hey, was somebody just bagging on poor Cade Otton in the last write-up? No offense to the family and friends of Mr. Otton, but he is the epitome of the generic tight end in the NFL. He’s great in real life as he can block and he has steady hands, but the Bucs just don’t run their offense through him, and he typically gives us 3 or 4 catches for 25-30 yards. At the end of the day, there really isn’t much of a difference between Otton, A.J. Barner, Tyler Higbee, Tyler Conklin, Daulton Schultz… OK, you get it. There are a lot of good real-life players who attended Tight End University, but they don’t all help our fantasy teams. These guys typically need to score us a touchdown to have any value. This week, we’re rolling the dice on Otton as the Bucs are down yet another receiving option as Emeka Egbuka is set to miss time with a hamstring issue. Last week, Otton saw 6 targets and converted them into 5 grabs for 51 yards without a score. I’m anticipating this game being a bit of a shootout, so I can endorse rolling out Otton this week in the hopes he can find the end zone.
