Fantasy Football Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Colston Loveland, Trey McBride

Why do I do this to myself? There are so many positions out there. Matt Harmon gets to be the wide receiver guy. Reddit user u/SubvertADown crushes the streaming DST game. Linda™ (@Liondellions on Twitter) is Queen of the Kickers. Why do I continue to toil with the absurdity of the tight end position? And, naturally, the most ridiculous possible tight end week happens smack dab in the middle of fantasy football playoffs. 
 

I certainly don’t do it because I love it. I do it because I love YOU. For you, I’ll dig through all the data, narratives, injuries, and matchups. For you, I’ll provide this tiered list of half PPR tight end rankings for Week 16 with a little note for each player. For you, I’ll provide some rest-of-season rankings with a look ahead to next week with a color-coded matchup grid at the bottom of my waiver wire article. And, for you, those articles are both free. I want US to do well. I truly do.
 

Now, if you want to be absolutely sure that you do well, my rankings for this week for EVERY position are available to Fantasy Alarm Members here. Those are paywalled for our members because they are special and they support us. If you’d like to be special and support us, get signed up and see everything we have to offer. If you are already a member, consider giving a membership to a friend or family member so that they can be special too!
 

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 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 1

• Trey McBride - Trey McBride just went off last week against the toughest secondary in the league. The matchup is once again not great, but no one is benching this player. The king stays the king. 
• George Kittle - If we were to make a list that was simply “good tight end with good quarterback and good matchup,” the only name on the list might be George Kittle. It’s that kind of week. 

Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 2

• Brock Bowers - This is where we need to ask ourselves how much we believe in the player. Brock Bowers is great. We know that. He caught 6 of 8 targets last week. But it was a brutal matchup, and his QB play was subpar, so he only had 28 yards. In any sort of PPR, I’m starting him. Trey McBride was able to get things done vs. this Texans defense so we have to hope Bowers can.
• Kyle Pitts - Drake London is very likely back. This is cause for concern to some degree. But Pitts has had the second-best deployment of any tight end behind only Trey McBride this year, and that generally brings a decent floor. After a number of games where he was getting targets and wasn’t catching them, Pitts started to capitalize in a big way lately. We don’t see why they would go completely away from that in a good matchup here.
• Colston Loveland - Colston Loveland has looked great when utilized. And he’s offered a solid floor. But the Bears have had too many weapons, which has limited his usage. With Rome Odunze and Luther Burden both out, the Bears are very likely to use more two-TE sets here with Loveland potentially operating as the WR2. This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for, and with all the weirdness at the position, you can’t pass it up. This guy is one of the few TEs running real, high aDot routes with the chance to rip off serious chunk plays at any moment. 
• Dallas Goedert - If we want to play the “good tight end with good quarterback and good matchup game”, Goedert has to be mentioned. We don’t love that he doesn’t get a lot of man-to-man targets or endzone targets. His touchdowns have largely been gadgety. But tight ends have run circles around the older Bobby Wagner this year - go reward Evan Engram’s game from a couple of weeks ago. Goedert should be “safe,” but we all know any one of these Eagles can disappear at any time. Because of that, I would be completely fine if you start any tight end from Tier 3 below him. Just know that you are entering The Danger Zone.

Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 3

• Travis Kelce - We have now entered The Danger Zone. Travis Kelce will be playing with Gardner Minshew, and he may have one foot out the door. But Kelce has a lot of pride, and he still has stats to pad. He’s also been a pretty consistent weekly target earner, and Rashee Rice might not clear concussion protocol. Plus, the Titans' secondary is ravaged. Here is a quick look at their first unofficial depth chart from this year - the guys with the red lines are either out for the season or off the team, and the guys in yellow are on the injury report this week.

• Harold Fannin Jr - Harold Fannin Jr has been the absolute focal point of this offense under Shedeur Sanders. I mean, he got 14 targets and a carry last week. In full PPR, he’s been tremendous despite his fairly low aDot. The problem? The Buffalo Bills are easily a top-three defense vs. the tight end and, depending on who you ask, the top defense. The Bills are scrapping for the AFC East title, and Fannin has a tough assignment with Matt Milano and company. 
• Tyler Warren - Philip Rivers looked serviceable. And he was getting the ball out in 2.41 seconds on average per PFF, which was easily the fastest of any QB (second was Tyler Shough at 2.69). The 49ers are down Fred Warner and Tatum Bethune, so the matchup is good. The Seahawks are not the weak TE team they were before Julian Love returned, so we’re willing to forget last week (more on that later). 
• Darren Waller - I completely understand it if you don’t want to take this risk. No one is making you. But, at a certain point, we have to choose ceiling vs. floor. The ceiling for Darren Waller against the Bengals, the worst team maybe ever against the TE, was TE1 overall with Tua. And guess what? It still is with the QB change. The floor is lower, but the ceiling is still insanely high. Just look at Harold Fannin playing with a 5th round pick QB. We just don’t know. I’m willing to shoot high.
• Colby Parkinson - There is upside here with Davante Adams out. But this is not a flawless situation. First off, we are talking about a guy that has been in the league for six years and has exactly two games with 50+ yards. Unlike some of the guys on the list that basically play WR, Colby Parkinson is also an inline tight end who has been asked to pass block pretty heavily at times - including 6 plays last week. That actually saw him have only a 64% route participation which was actually lower than Darren Waller even. In fact, another tight end on the team, Terrance Ferguson, ran more routes. There's a chance he's actually the one that plays more WR snaps this week with Adams out. On top of that, the pairing of Julian Love and Nick Emmanwori completely changes the dynamic of how this team covers tight ends - Julian Love was targeting only once and it wasn’t caught last week. Parkinson still has upside which is why he’s ranked top 10 but it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I mean, there’s literally going to be a storm tonight in Seattle.

Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 4

• Dalton Schultz - I have no problem with using Dalton Schultz here. He’s been pretty reliable outside of a tough matchup with the Bills. The problem is that the Raiders themselves have kind of been a tough tight end matchup. So I’m not expecting Schultz to go crazy either.
• Dalton Kincaid - Everyone knows the deal here. Kincaid’s per snap numbers are very good. But his snaps are not. And that keeps him in this tier where the upside is capped. The matchup isn’t great either, for what that’s worth. No practice on Thursday also has us nervous.
• Juwan Johnson - In full PPR Juwan Johnson has been extremely reliable. In standard, he’s been pretty meh. These are half PPR where Juwan is just fine. Outside of the three games after he hurt his ankle against Buffalo, he’s been solid and I’m willing to start him in a league of my own this week. 
• Hunter Henry - The Bills are a killer tight end matchup so we can forget last week. I expect Henry to bounce back but what are we bouncing back to? He went off against the Bengals but so does everyone. I expect the usual 4-6 targets and he either scores or doesn’t. Which fits him right in Tier 4 with his good QB in a very important Sunday Night Football game.
• Jake Ferguson - Jake Ferguson was a very good play when CeeDee Lamb was out who became an okay play when he came back. He’s fairly slow so doesn’t offer much YAC so, much like Henry, we are hoping he catches his 4-6 targets and scores. This matchup vs. Derwin James and company is not the best for him because he does well vs. man to man and the Chargers play zone like 85% of the time per sources like Sumer Sports and Fantasy Points Data Suite. 

Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 5

• Theo Johnson  - We are trying not to use guys from Tier 5 if we can avoid it. A lot of these guys, like Theo Johnson, are not really locked in as a top two target on their team. We were hoping for more of him in a plus matchup vs. Washington last week - this matchup is just okay.
• Oronde Gadsden - I’ve been wondering if perhaps the knee issue for Gadsden was more than they were making out. He went from leading his team in routes and targets for a stretch to being clearly fourth on the team in routes and disappearing at times. This week we saw Ladd McConkey and Tre Harris run 30 and 29 routes while Gadsden ran 21 and Allen ran 20. He did look better but it’s almost too little, too late at this stage. It’s a good matchup though so maybe it turns into a shootout. 
• Brenton Strange - Brenton Strange to me is basically what Cade Otton was last year for Liam Coen. When WRs are hurt, we use him. With Jakobi Meyers and Brian Thomas Jr both healthy now, I would rather not. Not against Denver.
• Mark Andrews - The Pats have not been great against tight ends but neither were the Bengals. At any given time, Andrews and the rest of the tight ends can be game scripted out. The Ravens should be able to run on New England with no Robert Spillane or Milton Williams.
• AJ Barner - No Elijah Arroyo gives him a boost but it’s still not a good matchup. He’s a DFS showdown play. 
• T.J. Hockenson - The Giants have quietly been pretty tough on tight ends. And it’s just so hard to trust pass-catchers for this Vikings team. 

Week 16 Tight End Rankings: Tier 6

In this range you really need to go down narrative street. For instance, Evan Engram has a revenge game against the Jaguars who have been a good matchup for tight ends. The only game that Evan Engram “started” this year, was his other revenge game with the Giants where he got 8 targets. He also got 9 targets against the Commanders and Bobby Wagner. That puts him at the top of the garbage heap for me. There are narratives we can create for every tight end in Tier 6 but the reality is that the floor is low and the ceiling isn’t particularly high without getting lucky.