Fantasy Football Week 7 Tight End Rankings: Taysom Hill enters the discussion once again

USATSI

All season long, I've preached patience at the tight end position more than any other in Fantasy Football. Through the first few weeks of the season, it looked like hardly any of the guys we drafted early at the position were going to do well. Here's what the top 12 in 0.5-PPR leagues looked like after the first three weeks:

T.J. Hockenson, MIN 39.4
Sam LaPorta, DET 33.6
Hunter Henry, NE 31
Travis Kelce, KC 27
Evan Engram, JAC 26.3
Donald Parham Jr., LAC 24.3
George Kittle, SF 20.4
Darren Waller, NYG 19.2
Pat Freiermuth, PIT 19.1
Tyler Higbee, LAR 18.7
Mark Andrews, BAL 18.5
Jake Ferguson, DAL 18

A handful of those names were drafted high enough to enter the season as starters, but even guys like Kittle and Waller weren't doing much for Fantasy despite ranking in the top 12 – being a top-12 TE isn't saying much if you only have 21 points through three games.

Thankfully, things look quite a bit better since the start of Week 4:

Travis Kelce, KC 43.6
Dalton Schultz, HOU 41.8
Mark Andrews, BAL 40.9
Cole Kmet, CHI 38.7
Dallas Goedert, PHI 31.9
Jonnu Smith, ATL 31.8
Sam LaPorta, DET 31.4
George Kittle, SF 28.2
Kyle Pitts, ATL 27.6
Darren Waller, NYG 23
Logan Thomas, WAS 22.7
Evan Engram, JAC 21.8

Engram's 21.8 points over the past three games have him at No. 12, but he would have been TE7 through the first three weeks of the season. There are still some guys who have been disappointments in that second group – 26.2 of Kittle's 28.2 points came in Week 5 alone, and you can do the math on what that means for his other two showings – but it's been a whole heck of a lot better over the past three weeks.

That's not to say the tight end position is suddenly deep with must-start options. For as good as Kmet has been, for example, he's playing with a backup QB for at least Week 7, and that might drag the entire offense down along with him. Schultz has put together a couple of excellent weeks, obviously, but it's come with a touchdown in each game, which we can't bet on continuing.

Oh, and also: Shultz is on a bye this week, so even if you are a believer (and I was coming into the season to a certain extent), he's not going to be of much use this week. Neither is Jake Ferguson, though thankfully those are the only Fantasy-relevant tight ends on byes this week – we aren't so lucky at quarterback, running back, or tight end, unfortunately.

One name I'm surprisingly high on this week that I want to highlight is Taysom Hill, who is my TE10 for Week 7 – that's the highest I've ever ranked him at tight end, I have to imagine. Because, for the first time really in his entire career last week, he wasn't just being used for gimmicky stuff near the end zone; he was actually playing tight end for the Saints. With Juwan Johnson out, Hill played a season-high 46 snaps Sunday, and lined up either out wide, in the slot, or as a traditional tight end on 42 of them. He ran a route on 33 pass plays and garnered eight targets, all of which came from the slot.

If the Saints are going to use Hill like that, he becomes a lot more interesting for Fantasy. He's been a useful Fantasy option at times in that gimmicky role, but it was always almost entirely touchdown-dependent. Now? If he's going to be running actual routes as an actual tight end, you can throw him in your lineup as a streamer – and he still has that touchdown potential if the Saints do opt to use him as a goal-line runner or QB option, too.

There's no guarantee the Saints will use him the same way in Week 7, but if I've been desperate for a tight end, I'm willing to use him as a streamer for this week.

Here are my rankings for Week 7 at the tight end position: