Fantasy Football Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Brock Bowers, Kyle Pitts

The tight end position is something special. You never truly know how the defense is going to address them. Sometimes they spend the game in-line blocking, even on pass plays. Sometimes the coach rotates them for seemingly no reason. Sometimes they just score zero points after having a great floor all year (looking at you, Jake Ferguson).

But they’re also the position that comes out of the woodwork mid to late season more often than any other to bring us to the promised land. Trey McBride. Jonnu Smith. The legendary Gary Barnidge. Our sweet angel, Oronde Gadsden. For 13 straight years now, a tight end has come from outside TE18 in ADP to finish top five. The position is equally frustrating and magical. And it’s our job to tackle it.    

That’s what we are doing today. If you want the season-long rankings for your roster decisions, those can be found at the bottom of the waiver wire article, where it says Yin & Yang Tight End. In this article, I share my thoughts for Week 9 for half PPR. If you want my rankings for every position and every format, those are available to Fantasy Alarm Members here. We actually have our Spooktober deal running now, where you can get 30% off the monthly price for the rest of the NFL season. There’s no better time than now to sign up - especially if you have fantasy basketball drafts coming up!

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

 SUNDAY UPDATE

• Removed Thursday Night Players
• Elevated Elijah Arroyo with Cooper Kupp out
• Lowered Dalton Schultz with Nico Collins active
• Lowered Colston Loveland with Cole Kmet active
• Added Cole Kmet
• Lowered Gunar Helm with Chig Okonkwo off injury reported

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 1

These three fellas offer the best mix of floor and ceiling based on their deployment. McBride is a full PPR start with a Cowboys shootout matchup on deck. Tyler Warren offers a great mix of snap and target share with gadget upside via pass/rush. And Tucker Kraft might not have the best deployment due to a low-volume offense and some pass-blocking, but this guy’s raw talent allows him to do more with less, much like a younger George Kittle. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 2

Speaking of Kittle, he just got through two very difficult matchups and now has a much easier one with the Giants. His snaps and routes have been fine since returning. Brock Bowers, in his first game back, is a guy that you can rank anywhere from TE1 to TE5, but you can’t rank any lower than that. He still technically has the second-highest target share among TEs behind only Trey McBride despite being banged up early in the year. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 3

Tier 3 is big with a lot of different options. Ferguson has been a good floor play outside of the bad matchup last week with Denver. This could be a shootout with Arizona, so I expect him to be involved. Oronde Gadsden has as high a ceiling as anyone, but the Titans are quietly in the top 10 for fewest points allowed to the TE while being 6th in DVOA against them per FTN Fantasy.

Kyle Pitts is top five in route participation, target share, pass block rate, screens, receptions vs. man, and broken tackles. I mean, he’s TE3 in targets despite already having his bye. Not sure what’s not to like. Travis Kelce is in a potential shootout with the Bills, who are without Matt Milano - though they have still been kind of tough on the tight end.. And LaPorta isn’t a bad play with the Lions, having one of the highest implied point totals on the week, but just know he can disappear if it gets too run-heavy. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 4

Kincaid is banged up, which scares us for his already limited target share. Andrews has a good matchup with Lamar coming back, so this week is pivotal for how we view him rest of the season. The Seahawks are expected to be without Julian Love for a while, and Terry McLaurin is also out, with Jayden Daniels coming back, which puts Ertz right on that TE1 fringe.

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 5

Evan Engram just doesn’t play enough - he has a target floor but hasn’t done much with it. Theo Johnson is finally emerging from three brutal matchups (PHI, DEN, PHI) and is a hypothetical upside play. Hunter Henry has a tough matchup with Jessie Bates and Xavier Watts, but may be able to take advantage of JD Bertrand over the middle. Juwan Johnson seems healed from his knee injury, but has a new QB, which is risky. Colston Loveland will move up if Cole KMet is out. T.J. Hockenson will be playing with JJ McCarthy, which is scary given Hock hasn’t done much of anything. Dalton Schultz has one of the worst TE matchups you can have in a game, with the lowest over/under on the week. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 6

These guys are all part-time players. Jonnu is part of the tight end circus, Fant rotates with Drew Sample and Tanner Hudson, and AJ Barner is an inline TE that gives up snaps to Elijah Arroyo, Chig is losing snaps to Gunnar Helm (and is dealing with a foot issue), 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 7

After getting five targets before the bye, I’m hoping they unleash Arroyo coming out of it - he’s a better pass-catcher than AJ Barner. Like the rest of this tier, though, it’s hard to have confidence outside of DFS dart throws due to the lack of any consistent production. If Chig is out this week with the foot issue, Helm will move up the rankings on the Sunday noon update. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 8

By now, you know my stance on Taysom Hill. This is a call that only you can make for yourself. 

Week 9 Tight End Rankings: Tier 9

Greg Dulcich led the Dolphins' tight end group in routes run last week, with 11. If you are in some sort of cartoonish 32-team league and your guy is on bye, that’s who I’d use from this tier.