We are on the last week of bye teams and the playoff races are heating up in fantasy football leagues. One notable name at tight end will not be available this week, which makes the waiver wire more important than usual.
Fantasy football waiver wire: 5 tight ends to target for Week 11
With Gary Barnidge on bye, fantasy owners will be chasing the waiver wire for tight ends this week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and New Orleans Saints all have the week off, which means no Gary Barnidge this week. Even other mid-level performers like Benjamin Watson and Heath Miller have the week off, so the tight end market is pretty thin for Week 11.
So let’s take a look at four potential wire candidates, all owned in 50 percent or less of Yahoo! leagues.
Richard Rodgers, Green Bay Packers (44 percent)
The Packers’ offense has been surprisingly stagnant in recent weeks, but Rodgers is somehow being productive with three touchdowns in the past two games. He’s not an every-week starter and will almost certainly tank your lineup if he can’t find the end zone, but with five scores in nine games this season, the dart throw potential is there in DFS or if you’re really desperate in a 14-team league.
Ladarius Green, San Diego Chargers (24 percent)
Green has been battling an ankle injury, but he should be healthy again coming off the Week 10 bye. While Antonio Gates remains the top tight end in San Diego, Green had been getting his fair share of targets before suffering the injury. With Keenan Allen done for the year, Green has high-end TE2 upside the rest of the way.
Crockett Gillmore, Baltimore Ravens (12 percent)
We’ve been patiently waiting for Gillmore to play a bigger role in the offense since Steve Smith went down. He’s still not getting a ton of targets, but Gillmore has done what he can with them, hauling in four catches for 42 yards last Sunday and scoring a touchdown for the second game in a row. Gillmore probably won’t be a TE1 any time soon, but his red zone prowess makes him a worthy streamer. This week he gets the St. Louis Rams, whose defense just got burned by second-stringer Zach Miller.
Clive Walford, Oakland Raiders (1 percent)
All Walford does is score touchdowns. That’s literally all he’s done this year -- Walford has only nine catches, but three of those were touchdowns, all coming in the past four weeks. The Raiders’ offense is legit, and when they get down to the red zone Derek Carr typically likes looking Walford’s way. This is the ultimate boom-or-bust pick -- Walford will either find the end zone or put up a goose egg, with no middle ground. Only buy in if you like his chances to score against the Detroit Lions this week.
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SB Nation presents: The wild, unexpected ending of the Packers-Lions game
