Fantasy football waiver wire: 4 tight ends to target for Week 13

The fantasy football season has been defined by severe, team-altering injuries to major headlining players. Nearly every position has seen a handful of season-ending injuries to high draft picks that ruined owners’ plans. For the most part, the tight end position was spared from the injury apocalypse.

Until Week 12.

The two biggest tight end names in fantasy -- Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham -- went down with injuries of varying severity on Sunday. Gronkowski was carted off the field during Sunday night’s overtime loss to the Denver Broncos, but despite the early worrying signs, it appears he avoided serious injury. Gronk will miss a couple weeks at worst, but he could come back in time for the fantasy playoffs, so owners should hold tight and go the streaming route at tight end.

Graham wasn’t so lucky, having suffered a torn patellar tendon. That is probably the worst injury a professional athlete can suffer, and is often a career-ender. Victor Cruz suffered the same injury last October and has yet to play again. Graham was immediately placed on injured reserve. It’s a long, slow rehab and he turns 30 next November, so Graham should be considered questionable for the 2016 season. If you own Graham in a dynasty league, we wouldn’t blame you for cutting bait right now.

With those two injuries, the tight end market is blown wide open in fantasy, and owners will be scrambling to find replacements on the waiver wire. Here are a few potential options, all owned in less than 50 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

Rudolph is an annual tease in fantasy circles, but he’s putting something of a hot streak together, grabbing 13 catches for 159 yards and a touchdown in the past two games. There’s no guarantee he’ll keep it up -- this is still Rudolph we’re talking about -- but he’ll have a plus matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, who, despite their defensive reputation, are one of the worst in the league at covering tight ends.

The story with Tamme has been the same all season -- when Leonard Hankerson doesn’t play, Tamme becomes a useful TE2. When Hankerson is active, Tamme is barely involved in the game plan. Fortunately for Tamme owners, Hankerson’s hamstring is still acting up and he sat out Week 12, so Tamme had a productive day with five catches for 69 yards. He’ll be worth streaming once again if Hankerson misses this week’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Chandler was getting involved in the Patriots’ offense even before Gronkowski went down. Now with the superstar tight end expected to miss at least one week, and Danny Amendola still a question mark, look for Chandler to play an even bigger role. Tom Brady is still playing at an MVP level, and somebody has to catch his targets with so many injuries on offense. Chandler could be a legitimate TE1 against a Philadelphia Eagles defense that seems to have packed it in for the season.

With Graham done for the year, Willson takes over as Seattle’s starting tight end. Willson has always had athletic gifts, but struggled to put it all together in his three years with the Seahawks. Fantasy owners rushing to pick him up will do well to remember that Graham wasn’t playing that big of a role in the offense in the first place. Willson has theoretical upside, but he probably won’t see enough targets to be anything more than a touchdown-dependent TE2.