In Week 14, you might be fighting for a playoff spot. A buy week even. Or maybe you are just playing spoiler in your league if you are already eliminated. But guess what will always be there for you, no matter what your season-long teams are doing? Our old pal DFS.

So why don’t we jump into the DFS TE landscape? After we used Trey McBride for weeks and weeks and weeks, they finally raised the price on Trey McBride to where it should be - among the top flex plays. So, if you can afford him without compromising, then great, get him in there. But he’s no longer absolutely must play. And we have other options out here at each level!

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Top Tier Picks For Week 14

George Kittle TE, San Francisco 49ers, DraftKings: $5,400 | FanDuel: $6,500

As we will discuss in the Fades section, there are only three defenses that truly scare us at the tight end position. The Eagles, the Texans, and the Bills. The first week of fantasy football playoffs just so happens to have some tough matchups at the tight end position. But the Titans may not be as bad as they seem on paper.

The Titans have seen some major shake-ups in their secondary. They lost L’Jarius Sneed, Roger McReary, and Jalyn Armour-Davis, as well as releasing safety Quandre Diggs. That has seen rookie safety Kevin Winston Jr. thrown into the slot as a nickel corner playing out of position. Both Brenton Strange and Harold Fannin Jr have been able to make things happen over the middle against this team, with them working on a skeleton crew. George Kittle is about to be their biggest challenge yet. 

Travis Kelce TE, Los Angeles Chargers DraftKings: $4,900 | FanDuel: $6,200

We avoid the Texans for a reason. We all saw what they did last week to the Chiefs and Travis Kelce. But that was last week. The down week will likely have folks fading Kelce this week, and that could benefit us, where we are looking to go contrarian. The Chiefs are in must-win mode, and Kelce likely doesn’t want his career to end on this kind of note.

You would think the Chargers would just use Derwin James to take Travis Kelce away here. And he does spend plenty of time in the box/slot. But, when you check sites like Sumer Sports or Fantasy Points Data Suite, it’s clear that the Chargers only play man-to-man around 15-17% of the time. That’s why Dallas Goedert was able to succeed. So we think Kelce does just fine here. 
 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Mid-Tier Picks For Week 14

Harold Fannin Jr TE, Cleveland Browns - DraftKings: $4,000 | FanDuel: $5,700

This is our DraftKings play in this range for sure. That’s the full PPR format. And Harold Fannin has been absolutely dialed in as the top target for Shedeur Sanders over this three-game sample size. He led the team in virtually every meaningful stat and not just among the tight ends, but the wide receivers too.

Now David Njoku is nicked up. And that’s going into a premium matchup with a Chicago Bears defense that has struggled. I’m really not sure why the DFS platforms didn’t juice up the prices here on Harold Fannin, but we aren’t complaining. The one knock on him is low aDot, but full PPR helps paper over that.

Mark Andrews TE, Baltimore Ravens - DraftKings: $3,900 | FanDuel: $5,300

This one is going to be super popular. And for good reason - the Bengals are in the running for the worst team of all time against the tight end. So Mark Andrews is obviously going to be on the table in DFS with the Ravens in panic mode. They just gave him an extension, so it’s time to prove he deserves to be there.

We like this play better on FanDuel than DraftKings for a couple of reasons. First, Andrews has always been more of a TD-dependent guy, and FanDuel, being a half PPR format, leans into that. The other is that Andrews is oddly much cheaper than Harold Fannin on FanDuel, which is odd considering Fannin is better for PPR, and Andrews for FanDuel. So it actually lines up pretty nicely for us - Fannin on DraftKings, Andrews on FanDuel. You can even pay down for Isaiah Likely if you want access to the matchup but can’t afford Andrews.

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Value Picks For Week 14

Theo Johnson Jr TE, New York Giants - DraftKings: $3,500 | FanDuel: $5,200

This play is still largely speculative. Because we haven’t quite SEEN it. But we’ve seen flashes. We’ve had some games with decent targets. We’ve had some games where he finds pay dirt. We’ve had some chunk plays. But we’ve never seen it all come together. That’s due in part to a brutal stretch of schedule mid-season, as well as injuries to Dart.

Well, now we finally, hopefully, see what Johnson can do. He’s had some drop issues, but he’s clearly a favorite of Jaxson Dart. And this matchup with Washington is ripe for upside. Bobby Wagner is a legend, but he has not been legendary at covering TEs lately. Evan Engram had a big day two weeks ago, then the Vikings tight ends combined for three touchdowns last week. If Theo Johnson is going to show us something, now is the time. 

Ben Sinnott TE, Washington Commanders - DraftKings: $2,700 | FanDuel: $4,800

We’re willing to get a bit weird if the conditions are just right. In this case, we have to do a bit of speculating. But anytime we are going under that $3,000 price tag, there really isn’t much certainty out there. If there were, these guys wouldn’t be so affordable.

In this case, we are banking on the SMALLEST of sample sizes. Not even a full game, even. Last year, in Week 15, Zach Ertz was taken to the blue tent with a possible concussion and didn’t return. In that game, it was not John Bates who stepped into Zach Ertz’s “big slot” role. John Bates is an inline blocking TE who runs a 4.89 forty and blocks on 30% of his pass plays. No, it was Ben Sinnott who leapfrogged him into that role, ever so briefly. Here is the chart that shows the WR snaps for the Commanders' tight ends last year and proves it. See that little blip with the black arrow? That’s our hope.

 

 

 

NFL DFS TE Fades For Week 14

Trey McBride TE, Arizona Cardinals - DraftKings: $7,400 | FanDuel: $8,000

We said we’d never have Trey McBride in this section. But I guess never say never. The Houston Texans' defense has been flat-out MEAN this year. And, for me, they are a “no-go” zone for tight ends. If they had given us a bigger discount on McBride, then they might have been able to entice us this week. But I just don’t want to go there. McBride could do well simply because he’s McBride, but it takes a lot to justify this price. 

Brock Bowers TE, Las Vegas Raiders - DraftKings: $5,900 | FanDuel: $7,400

As we’ve said multiple times, we don’t like starting teams vs. the Eagles, Bills, or Texans. You take a terrible matchup here and compound it with bad quarterback play, whether it be from Geno Smith or from Kenny Pickett, and we just aren’t really interested. 

Hunter Henry TE, Buffalo Bills - DraftKings: $4,400 | FanDuel: $5,400

Hunter Henry is our guy. We love rooting for Hunter to get in the Hen House. Anytime we get a good matchup, we go there. This just so happens to be the worst possible matchup for tight ends this year. So we aren’t going to go there.