What’s the best way to console yourself after losing in fantasy playoffs? How about winning a huge bag of money on DFS? Luckily, we’re still here for you and we will continue to be as long as we have a reasonably large enough slate to play. Lucky for us this week we have Thursday Night Football, a Saturday slate, a full Sunday main slate, and then a three-game holiday slate on Christmas! So we’re here to give you a pick for the two-game Saturday slate, the main slate, and even an early preview for Christmas. Good luck gang and don’t forget to post those winnings on Discord!

Be sure to check out the rest of the NFL DFS Coaches and DFS Watch List throughout the week!

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As a reminder, here is how we separate the groups here.  We do it this way so that you have an option no matter how much (or how little) money you have available to spend on tight end.

Top Tier:  the safest and most expensive guys available if you want to pay up

Mid Tier: affordable players that offer the best bang for your buck

Value Tier: the bargain bin players that are risky by nature but can have the huge upside in terms of value created

Fades: The guys we feel are the worst value proposition that you should actively avoid

 

SATURDAY PLAY

Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers

There are only two games here so not going to load you up with options. If you can afford Dalton Kincaid then great - I’m writing off last week as a fluke. But I’m personally willing to take a shot on Muth here even with the backup QB. With Kenny Pickett against this defense a couple of weeks ago, Muth put up 9 catches for 120 yards. With Mitch Trubisky over the last couple of weeks, he hasn’t been super involved though. So the bet is pretty simple. We’re hoping that Mason Rudolph leans on Freiermuth this Saturday in one of the best possible matchups for tight ends. 

 

SUNDAY SLATE

Top Tier 

Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals

Over the last six weeks, while Zach Ertz has been out and Kyler Murray has been in, no tight end has a higher target share than Trey McBride. Not only that but Marquise Brown is dealing with a heel injury that saw him leave the game last week. McBride gets a plus matchup this week and he’s fairly affordable compared to the other top tier options. Evan Engram could be without his QB, T.J. Hockenson has to compete with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison for targets and we wrote below why we aren’t paying up for Sam LaPorta this week. McBride is ~11.5% of your budget on DraftKings and FanDuel but he’s actually priced down to TE5 on the slot on Yahoo so we really like him over there.

David Njoku, Cleveland Browns

We talked about Trey McBride’s target share over the last six weeks - well Njoku is third in target share behind McBride and T.J. Hockenson over that span and no one has more raw targets than his 61. Last week against the Bears (who McBride gets this week), Njoku saw a whopping 14 targets. And this week the matchup is actually EASIER for Njoku going up against the Houston Texans. Njoku is 10.6% on DraftKings (cheaper than McBride), 11% on Yahoo (more expensive than McBride), and 11% on FanDuel (cheaper than McBride) so we are using McBride on Yahoo but Njoku is viable on the other two. 

Mid Tier

Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys

It’s not often that we recommend Jake Ferguson. And he’s really more of a cash play than a GPP play. But it’s hard to argue with a guy who has gotten eight targets in three straight matchups and could be involved in a shootout with the Miami Dolphins here. He’s not particularly fast so doesn’t rack up the YAC but his price point is rock solid for what he gives you in head-to-heads or smaller games. He’s priced at 9% on Yahoo, 9.8% on DrafKings (which is PPR, his better format), and 10% on FanDuel so I’d use him on Yahoo or DK but probably not FanDuel. 

Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons

If Jake Ferguson is your safe play, this is your upside play. We said from the start of this season, that we were hoping that A. his knee would get right coming off of offseason surgery and B. that Taylor Heinicke would take over. In the two games prior to last week (which was a complete washout in the rain) he ran 90% of the routes so seems he is ready to rock. And Heinicke is set to start this week. Pitts quietly has a 20% target share over the last six weeks which is higher than both Travis Kelce and Sam LaPorta. The floor is scary but it’s DFS so who cares about the floor - let’s get crazy! He’s 11% of your budget on FanDuel so we don’t love that but at 8% on DraftKings and 7.5% on Yahoo we are IN.

Value Tier

Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers

There are multiple different slates and not a ton of Sunday games so we really only like one option. If you absolutely need something close to bare minimum play on DraftKings then maybe go with Kylen Granson at $2,700 but he’s really not a full-time player. Tucker Kraft IS a full-time player - over the last two weeks he’s played all but three snaps. And he only pass blocked one time last week so he ran 40 of 43 routes. The matchup with Carolina isn’t ideal but Kraft is an affordable 7.4% on DraftKings which is nice (don’t use him on FanDuel at 8.8%). Yahoo is where we are definitely using him. He is somehow priced at the bare minimum $10. How is that possible at this point?

Fades

Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions

We aren’t really opposed to him per se. But this week we just don’t want to pay up for him on the main slate at his price. The Vikings run a lot of two-high safety which can be problematic for tight ends - particularly inline tight ends like LaPorta. They also blitz quite a bit and LaPorta has quietly been asked to stay in and block on pass plays at times. Even last week he blocked on seven pass plays. Since he’s more expensive than McBride who we flat out like better this week, we’re not using him much. 

Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans

I know the Browns defense has dealt with some injuries but they are still a good defense that has been great against the tight end. If C.J. Stroud were playing we might consider it but he’s already been ruled out. Plus Nico Collins could be back. Just not doing it with Schultz again this week. And probably not next week either. 

 

EARLY CHRISTMAS SLATE LOOK

From what I have seen, Yahoo and FanDuel have not released their three-game Christmas slates yet but DraftKings has released theirs. Travis Kelce is always on that table if you can afford it, especially against the Raiders where they have hung 28 or more points in every game since Patrick Mahomes became the starter. We also like the idea of Darren Waller against Philly - he got six targets on only a 40% snap share so the ceiling is high. In the bare minimum price range, Noah Gray has gotten a target in every game this year but one and is in consideration for a random TD at times. You also never know when injuries might strike and we saw him fill in for Travis Kelce in Week One.