Fantasy Football Week 15 Tight End Rankings: George Kittle, Kyle Pitts

Welcome in, esteemed fantasy football playoff enjoyers. Congratulations on qualifying for the tournament. You can scrap everything else that has happened so far because all that matters is what happens next. And guess what? Everything lined up perfectly, once again, for the tight end position to be a complete mess. And just in time for the most important week of the year.

Because of that, I included a bit more of an extensive write-up in the notes section for each player. Not every little bit of data that we look at, mind you, but at least some key thoughts for the key players. If you have a bye week this week, congratulations and the rest of us are not jealous at all. For you, I did include my Rest of Season tight end rankings with color-coded matchup grid at the bottom of my waiver wire article. But that’s for the fancy folks who can look ahead to next week. And look down on us peasants playing in the first round.

Now, if you want to make sure you dominate your playoffs and leave no stone unturned, my rankings for this week for EVERY position are available to Fantasy Alarm Members here. If you are completely eliminated, there’s also DFS advice and our betting picks in there - not just for football but every single sport. You can keep the dream alive and be a winner every night of the week if you care about stuff like basketball or hockey. But this article ain’t about that.

As always, I’ll be available for comments or concerns in the Twitter or Reddit threads, so feel free to weigh in there with your own thoughts - or any questions you have for this week!

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

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 1

• Trey McBride - It is a terrible matchup for Trey McBride. But he’s Trey McBride. If you wanted to start George Kittle over him, I would understand that. But Bowers also has a bad matchup, and his QB is Kenny Pickett, so I’m not going there.
• George Kittle - The Titans are no longer a tough defense vs. the TE after suffering numerous injuries in their secondary. They have rookie safety Kevin Winston Jr. playing out of position as their nickel corner. Kittle is a rock-solid play.

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 2

• Brock Bowers - It’s a rough week at the tight end position. This is one of those cases where you likely just start Brock Bowers with the understanding that Kenny Pickett should know that getting it to Brock Bowers early and often is in his best interest.
• Travis Kelce - Everyone struggled vs. the Texans, so I’m not going to hold last week against Kelce. He’s gotten at least five targets in each of the last six games, and every game is must-win here. He has a decent floor against a Chargers team that plays like 85% of their defensive snaps in zone. 
• Harold Fannin - This guy is the top pass-catcher for Shedeur Sanders. He’s leading this team in routes, targets, receptions, yards, first downs, touchdowns, etc., since Sanders took over. And it’s a good matchup with the Bears.
• Kyle Pitts - With Kyle Pitts, anything is possible. If he faceplants, we would not be surprised. But back-to-back games of 7 for 82 and 6 for 90 have us leaning into the upside at a position that does not offer much upside. Last time he played this team, he caught 7 of 8 targets for 59.

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 3

• Tyler Warren - This is obviously a nightmare situation with the QB change. We don’t even know who the QB will be. We always update this article shortly after noon on Sunday, so we will have Tyler Warren’s final ranking then. For this Thursday post, he is ranked here for one very specific reason - if your options are Kyle Pitts and Tyler Warren, I would start Kyle Pitts tonight. Simple as that. If Philip Rivers is the starter, Warren could move up from here, but if it’s Brett Rypien or Riley Leonard, he could move down.

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 4

• Jake Ferguson - We know what Ferg is at this stage. He’s clearly third behind CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, but he’s at least safely #3. If Lamb doesn’t clear concussion protocol, he’ll move up. Ferg himself has a calf injury, so monitor that.
• Dalton Kinciad - Yes, his yards per route run and everything per route run are stellar - we just want to see him run more routes. Can’t hold anything back this week against New England, though.
• Mark Andrews - The Bengals are the number one tight end matchup of all time. I wish Andrews were getting the usage he did 2-3 years ago, but he’s as good a bet as any to score a TD. He popped up on the injury report with a glute injury so we'll monitor that.
• Juwan Johnson - Johnson has had a solid floor, but the ceiling hasn’t been special lately. If you play full PPR, you love him; standard, he has not been great. This is half PPR, so he’s fine. Chris Olave should see a good amount of Jaycee Horn, so I expect Juwan to be involved.
• Brenton Strange - We favor Strange over a lot of other options because Liam Coen often has his tight ends playing 80-90% of the snaps, which can’t be sad for a lot of guys. It’s not an ideal role as he’s primarily inline, but he’s seeing 4-6 targets lately.

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 5

• Theo Johnson  - Good matchup for Theo, but he hasn’t quite put everything together in a game yet. So this is still a speculative play, but a promising one. 
• Hunter Henry - We try to avoid the Eagles, Texans, and Bills where we can. This is not a good matchup vs. Matt Milano and company, so you just have to hope Hunter gets in the Hen House. 
• Isaiah Likely - Everyone knows the deal here. Likely is a part-time player, but even TE2s do damage against the Bengals. His Vegas props are surprisingly low, so I actually prefer to bet those than start him in my lineups. You can get plus money to bet he has more than 3.5 receptions, for instance. If the glute injury somehow keeps Andrews out, Likely would shoot up these rankings.
• Colton Loveland - Part-time guy as well here, who has a decent floor but a capped ceiling because of that.
• Darren Waller - Last week, Waller ran 13 routes; Dulcich ran 12. Both got 3 targets. That is scary. I’d rather stash Waller and hope he plays more this week so I can start him next week vs. the Bengals.
• Dallas Goedert - The Chargers play a ton of zone, which had the Eagles dinking and dunking. This guy disappears too often and does not get a lot of targets vs. man to man or in the endzone, which has me shying away. 

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 6

Hopefully, you have other options for your playoff matchup, as this tier is taking on a little too much risk without enough upside. Elijah Arroyo, likely missing this week, has AJ Barner as my favorite option of the group. 

Week 15 Tight End Rankings: Tier 7

This is the danger zone. We don’t know how much these guys will be involved in any given week. We don’t know if they will even lead their own tight end group in routes run. In really deep leagues, you gotta do what you gotta do.