All year we’ve been doing a “what I’m watching” segment but we are at the end of the road - there is really nothing more to plan for in redraft.  That said, if you would like to know my opinion on each matchup this week you have two avenues for that - the Fantasy Alarm NFL Podcast with Jon Impemba or the interview I did with Scott Spratt of Football Outsiders.  Both hit on each game and any interesting story lines.

Instead, what I’d like to do here is hit on a pivotal moment in dynasty leagues - grabbing guys off waivers and stashing them RIGHT before waivers close for the season.  In your league it’s highly likely that you can go and add some of these guys RIGHT NOW whether you are still in it or not.  I know the depth of leagues does vary so I’m going to do my best to give options at each level.  So here we go.  Since it’s a common platform, I’m going to use Yahoo rostership percentage for this but your mileage may vary based on where you play and who you play with. 

We are going to start with tight end - a position that is near and dear to my heart.

 

Shallow Leagues: 

Evan Engram - 30%

Folks may have soured on Evan Engram and that’s fine - makes it easier for us to acquire him either via waivers or trade.  This is technically a tight end but he’s built more like Demaryius Thomas (rest in peace).  Here are their measurables per PlayerProfiler.  

Oddly similar in terms of height, weight, speed etc. right?  Kind of weird then that Jason Garrett would try to pretend like he’s Jason Witten and make him put his hand in the dirt so often.  It’s no secret that Engram had his best season with Eli Manning - a player who was honestly at the tail end of his own career as it was. And it’s no secret Engram has been really bad with Daniel Jones.  Drops are the main concern as we all know but what we might not know is that Jimmy Graham once dropped 15 passes from Drew Brees in a season.  And that’s Drew Brees.  Engram dropped eight passes in 16 games in 2020 but George Kittle dropped eight in eight games.  Drops aren’t negative points in fantasy so it only matters if they stop throwing you the ball.  Engram is a free agent and, if he lands with a new team and a new QB, this guy could immediately become a high end option.  There is no substitute for speed at the tight end position where most players are slow and heavily TD dependent. It’s a low risk, high reward move given how cheap it is to acquire him and he may even be on waivers in shallow dynasty leagues or keeper leagues..  

Honorable Shallow League Mentions: Austin Hooper, Irv Smith Jr.

 

Medium Leagues: 

Ricky Seals-Jones - 12%

Sticking with the same theme, we’ll go with another tight end who is a pending free agent.  Folks may feel like RSJ has been around for a long time but he’s currently only 26.  You have to remember that a guy like Delanie Walker literally sat behind Vernon Davis for seven years and didn’t break out until he was 30 years old.  Seriously - here are his stats from Pro Football Reference.


That’s like, Steve Young levels of waiting around.  Unlike Delanie Walker who came up the blocking side of the tree before transitioning over to a pass catching role with a new team, Ricky Seals-Jones is a pure pass catcher who has always skewed that direction.  He’s just landed in a lot of unfortunate situations (not sure what his agent had planned in some cases).  He was drafted to a Bruce Arians offense that preferred using the tight end to block in Arizona.  Then he went to a Cleveland team where, you guessed it, they preferred the blocking tight end Demetrius Harris.  After that he went to a team that uses a tight end as a focal point in Kansas City but Travis Kelce simply never got hurt so he never got to step in as the insurance policy.  

In Washington he took on that same role but this time the starter DID get hurt.  And RSJ filled in for Logan Thomas valiantly playing 100% of the snaps at times and producing a handful of fantasy relevant weeks.  At 6’5” 243, his speed is 75% percentile so a team very well might take a shot on the undrafted free agent this offseason.  So you might want to take a shot too.  Worst case you just drop him if he lands somewhere as a backup again. 

Honorable Medium League Mentions: Adam Trautman, Dan Arnold, Blake Jarwin

 

Deep Leagues: 

Brevin Jordan - 1%

The tight end headlines for rookies this year have been dominated by Kyle Pitts and Pat Freiermuth - and rightfully so.  Both are having two of the better seasons we’ve seen for rookie tight ends as their PPR points per game of 10.99 for Pitts (7th all time, minimum 5 games) and 9.51 for Freiermuth (16th all time) are wayyy up there.  I mean, Rob Gronkowski averaged  9.66 points per game his rookie year.

But some fantasy gamers might not recognize how good Brevin Jordan has been as well.  His 7.7 points per game is 36th all time.  All time!  We are talking about a list headlined by 1961 Mike Ditka here.  Brevin Jordan’s 7.7 points per game as a rookie is ahead of George Kittle, Mark Andrews, TJ Hockenson, Zach Ertz, Jimmy Graham, Greg Olsen, Vernon Davis, heck, even Tony Gonzalez.

I know there are a lot of redraft leagues on Yahoo but 1% is low no matter how you slice it.  He’s out there on waivers in some leagues and available for trades in others.  The Texans need to start from scratch and they seem to like this kid so his window for relevance is already open right now as opposed to some guys like Dallas Goedert who had to wait years and years for Zach Ertz to get moved.  Even if you don’t love the profile, he has scoop and flip potential on a rebuilding team.  

Honorable Shallow League Mentions: Mo Alie-Cox, Albert Okeugbunam, Kylen Granson
 

Super Deep Leagues: 

Eli Wolf - 0%

You want to complain that all these guys are rostered in your leagues?  Alright then.  How about this one?  Eli Wolf.  

Yeah this is a deep cut but this is your super deep league isn’t it?  This is a player who has clear athleticism and absolutely on the passing catching side of things given his play style.  Here is his athletic profile from his Pro Day. 

The only tight ends in the league as fast as that are Kyle Pitts and Evan Engram.  That’s it.  His brother, Ethan Wolf, just got a chance to play for the Saints even though he runs a 5.03 forty which is like Jack Doyle-esque third percentile speed.  Eli was on the Ravens practice squad and would have had his chance to get called up when Mark Andrews had COVID in 2020 but, unfortunately, Wolf was also hurt at that time.  A tragedy of monumental proportions for me and the other seven Eli Wolf fans that aren’t directly related to him.  Now adays he finds himself on the Colts practice squad where Jack Doyle is set to retire and Mo Allie-Cox is a free agent.  There is a world where it’s Eli Wolf vs. Kylen Granson for the pass catching tight end role and those odds aren’t actually that terrible.  He’s such a star in the making that even the cameras couldn’t keep their eyes off him this past week (no idea who that scrub in the background is)

We have Granson ahead (see honorable mentions last tier) as he is supposedly a Trey Burton clone but the athleticism of Eli Wolf has us intrigued.  In this tier, you are simply looking for athleticism of any kind trying to hit on the next Logan Thomas.  Wide receivers switching to tight end, converted QBs, ex-basketball players (I know, relax).

Honorable Super Deep League Mentions: Tyree Jackson, Tony Poljan, Jeff Driskel