Tight end has certainly lived up to its reputation as the worst position in Fantasy Football. Only seven tight ends are averaging even 10 Fantasy points per game. But one of those tight ends has been one of the true bright spots, rookie Sam LaPorta.
LaPorta ranks fourth among tight ends in targets per route run at 25.7% and second in overall target share at 21.8%. Maybe most impressive is that his 2.30 yards per route run is best among all tight ends with a double-digit target share this season. Pretty awesome, indeed.
With Jameson Williams returning this week, I would understand questions about whether LaPorta can keep this up. We won't know for sure until we see Williams at 100% in an NFL game but my current expectation is that Williams doesn't impact LaPorta at all in 2023. He'll probably see a little regression naturally, and he'll certainly have frustrating weeks, but I feel far more confident in LaPorta as a Fantasy starter rest of season than I do Williams.
LaPorta is a top six tight end this week, and there is little reason to believe he'll give that spot up rest of season. Buy him and start him.
Here's everything else you need to know about tight end in Week 5:
Few players have done less with more than Ertz. Yes, that's what I meant to type. He ranks fourth at the position with 20 catches but 16th in yards, and he hasn't scored yet. He should have scored in Week 4, but he dropped it. All those negatives being said, he's still seeing an enormous target share and tight end is too bad of a position to just ignore that.
Conklin has 17 targets over the last three weeks, Zach Wilson is looking better and the Denver Broncos have arguably the worst defense in the NFL. That's not quite enough to make Conklin a top-12 tight end, but it does make him a good bye-week replacement and a start over Tyler Higbee if Cooper Kupp is back.
I'm going right back to Hockenson this week in a great matchup against the Chiefs. They have given up the fifth-most receptions to tight ends and the ninth-most yards. I expect 40-plus passes from the Vikings again this weekend, and Hockenson may see 10 of them.
Henry didn't score last week, and it's another terrible matchup against the Saints, so I would expect his roster rate to be minuscule. But he has 50-plus yards in three of four games, and the Saints did just give up a touchdown to Cade Otton. Kelce and Hockenson should be your top two choices, but Henry is the best option under $6,000 on FanDuel, and the bonus is he's also contrarian.
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Heath's Projections
My full set of Week 5 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 5. Projected stats for all starting tight ends are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections over at SportsLine.
