Fantasy Football Week 10 Tight End Rankings: Brock Bowers, Isaiah Likely

It feels GREAT to have the weekly tight end article back up and running. It’s just nice to be able to explain what the thought process is. Sure, there are guys who are banged up, like Hunter Henry. And some guys we like have terrible matchups like Tucker Kraft and T.J. Hockenson. And other guys are playing their first games with rookie QBs like Trey McBride and Brock Bowers. And Chig Okonkwo is playing in a rainstorm tonight. 

But other than that, it’s great! If you have your own thoughts or questions, feel free to ask on Reddit or throw them in the Fantasy Alarm Discord. In fact, you can get into that Discord and get all of my fantasy football rankings at Fantasy Alarm by using promo code WIN to get 50% off your first month. That sure would make me happy, and it would make your life a lot easier too, just having access to ALL the rankings and not just the half PPR weekly tight end ones. Just saying. 

As always, I will update this article again on Sunday at noon after the inactives have come out, so make sure you circle back then before finalizing your lineups!

*Players highlighted in red have injury concerns that we need to monitor

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 1

• Brock Bowers - The fewest targets Brock Bowers has gotten in any game all season is 8. He has more games with double-digit targets than he has games with fewer than 10. There have only been 10 total 100-yard games from tight ends this season, and Bowers has 3 of them. It’s a bad matchup, and it’s a rookie QB's first game, but you simply can’t bench this guy. 
• George Kittle - In this top tier, Kittle is the only one who has an actual favorable matchup here with the Cowboys and a 55.5 over/under. If someone wanted to rank Kittle TE1 and Bowers TE2, I wouldn’t argue, but what does that even mean for fantasy gamers? If you have both Bowers and Kittle, somehow you start Kittle at TE and move Bowers to the flex out of respect? You are starting these guys no matter what.
• Trey McBride - This is also not a great matchup. But, like Bowers, McBride has yet to get fewer than 8 targets in a game all year. He already played this Rams team, and he caught 7 of 9 for 53. We are a little less confident in Carson Beck than Fernando Mendoza, but McBride is still a Tier 1 operator and almost certainly in your lineup. 

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 2

• Isaiah Likely - We had our concerns after the first game with JJ McCarthy at the helm. The deployment for Likely didn’t change as he was still running a lot of routes, most of them from a WR spot. But he wasn’t targeted as much as he was with Jameis Winston. Last week Likely got caught 5 of 6 targets and, though the touchdown did come via Winston, he caught 4 of 4 targets from JJ McCarthy. That’s enough to trust him in a great matchup vs. Washington. 
• Tyler Warren - This one is actually as simple as it seems. No matter what direction the organization is going in, you still have to play the games. Tyler Warren has gotten 26 targets over the last three games, and that was before trading away Keenan Allen and Josh Downs. The Dolphins are a good TE matchup, and the volume should be there. 
• Travis Kelce - The Falcons were not a great matchup for tight ends - until they traded star safety Jessie Bates away to the Jaguars. Now we don’t have much to worry about, so Kelce should continue to be a fairly safe option in fantasy. 

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 3

• Dalton Kincaid - Dalton Kincaid has disappeared for a few of the tough tight end matchups here. Or, more realistically, the Bills just play to their strengths in those games. That is something to worry about for tough matchups, but we aren’t worried about Kincaid this week against the Jets. 
• Harold Fannin Jr - With Shedeur Sanders out and Deshaun Watson back in, Harold Fannin Jr moves back up the weekly rankings. Denzel Boston has been absent from practice with a toe issue and, if he’s out, Fannin will probably move to the top of the tier for the Sunday update. Just remember what happened last week if they do decide to go back to Sanders down the stretch…
• Sam LaPorta - Everyone in this tier has their concerns. LaPorta does not have a good matchup here vs. New England, so if you are looking for ceiling, I’d look elsewhere, as he struggled in tough matchups against the Packers and Vikings as well. In fact, we would have liked to see more out of him against the Dolphins. But his snap share and route participation have been consistently high this entire stretch. In fact, over these three “down” games, the only TE who has had a higher snap share than LaPorta’s 92.7% is Cade Otton. So LaPorta remains a fairly “safe” option.

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 4

• Tucker Kraft - We have a bit of a red flag here over the last couple of games for Tucker Kraft. The killer of otherwise production tight ends. Pass blocking. Against the Panthers, Kraft was asked to stay in and block on 20% of his pass plays. Against New England, that was 27.3%. That might not seem like much, but that amounts to 17 more routes he could have been running. The line is so bad for Green Bay that they are asking Kraft to help block while they throw bombs to Christian Watson and Matthew Golden. That makes me VERY nervous against an aggressive Vikings defense, which is why Kraft is down here in Tier 4. Anything over 15% pass blocking is historically a killer. 
• Hunter Henry - If this game had occurred a couple of weeks ago, Hunter Henry might even be a tier above this. Henry wouldn’t be dealing with this foot issue, and Brian Branch would still be out for the Lions. Even then, Jack Campbell and Kerby Joseph are out, and the Pats WR group is struggling. We just had that Henry only ran 22 of 48 routes last week while Eli Raridon ran 21. That’s what happens when you play through a foot injury. The hope is that he trends the right way and plays more this week than last. 
• Chig Okonkwo - We were really excited for Chig Okonkwo for this week and, honestly, the next couple. Since Terry McLaurin has been out, he’s been either first or second among Washington pass-catchers in snaps, routes, targets, receptions, and yards. Stefon Diggs has remained a part-time guy, with rookie Antonio Williams becoming a full-time guy outside, so things are open for him. But this rainstorm has seen the over/under in this game go from where it opened at 44.5 down to 40.5. That pours literal cold water on our plans to some degree, but I’m still starting him in a lot of spots. If anyone wanted to start Chig over any player in this tier, they still have the green light from me. That’s where he would have been ranked if not for the weather. 
• Kyle Pitts - Kyle Pitts had been playing well. Then he gets a really good matchup vs. the Bengals and gives you a dud. That’s the Kyle Pitts experience. The upside is still there in any given week for this guy, which is why we prefer him over more boring options, but at this stage, you know that anything can happen with this guy. 

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 5

• T.J. Hockenson - Quarterback changes make us nervous. It’s not just about talent but about tendencies. But, more importantly, the Green Bay Packers with Evan Williams, Xavier McKinney, and company have been a terrible matchup for tight ends. So we really don’t want to start Hock if we can avoid it. 
• Brenton Strange - Strange was looking extremely reliable before the bye week, getting 7-8 targets each week. He comes out of the bye and gets only 2 targets in each game. The Jags really didn’t need to throw all that much in those games, but they might not need to throw all that much against the Titans this week either. 
• Tyler Higbee - I’ll be honest, I really just don’t think Tyler Higbee was ever all that talented as a pass-catcher. He hasn’t been that guy for us his entire career. So I really don’t like leaning into that all of a sudden at 33 years old. But the Rams have no WRs, and they probably can’t run it all game. Though I said that about the Buccaneers when Baker Mayfield had a hurt hand and they got away with running it all game for two weeks. 
• Darren Waller - Last week Darren Waller got 10 targets. But his deployment actually wasn’t all that special; he still didn’t run more than 70% of the routes (something he has yet to do all year). Tommy Tremble also got 6 targets and scored. Maybe something has been unlocked with Waller, or maybe they just leaned into the fact that Denver funnels everything over the middle. It’s your choice to find out or not. 
• AJ Barner - There are a lot of tight ends that get 3-5 targets a game. But not a lot of those tight ends are also the goal-line quarterback for their team. Drew Lock has an elbow issue, so Barner took all three QB sneaks last week and scored. So he is a better option than the rest of those guys.
• Greg Dulcich - I won’t give up on Greg Dulcich. You can’t make me.
• Eli Raridon - As I mentioned earlier, Eli Raridon actually did manage to split the routes with Hunter Henry. The matchup and lack of wide receivers should allow for both tight ends to be involved. There is also the contingent upside of Henry possibly reaggravating the foot issue and leaving. 

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 6

• Freiermuth splits work with Darnell Washington but has some Tush Push upside like Barner. Michael Mayer isn’t a terrible option but faces the Seahawks where he may need to stay in and block more. Dalton Schultz is Dalton Schultz. Gesicki is chasing touchdowns. Elijah Higgins is actually a super sneaky option since he’s a converted wide receiver and they have zero WRs left. He actually ran 20 of 35 routes and might actually be the second-best pass catcher after Trey McBride. If I wasn’t such a wuss, I would rank him at the top of this tier but use him in DFS. 

Week 10 TE Rankings - Tier 7

• I have the backup tight end for the Arizona Cardinals ranked ahead of these guys; I’m not sure what else you would like me to say.