Fantasy football waiver wire: Best tight ends available in Week 14

The fantasy football season is nearing its end. This is either the last week of the regular season, or the first week of the playoffs if you play in a deeper league. Either way, we’re in the stretch run and every move will be critical from here on out as owners fight for the championship.

The tight end position is in major upheaval this week thanks to two key absences. The biggest one is Rob Gronkowski, who took a shameful and blatant cheap shot on Buffalo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White, putting him in the concussion protocol. The NFL suspended Gronk for one game, and while he’s appealing, it’ll almost certainly be upheld. That leaves fantasy owners without the overall TE1 this week, so they’ll have to hit the waiver wire hard.

The other big name concerns Zach Ertz, who suffered a concussion in Sunday night’s game. It’s a big concern for Ertz, who has multiple documented concussions in his career. If he can’t get cleared in time, that’s another major player unavailable for owners.

With all that in mind, it ought to be a busy week for tight ends on the wire. Here are the top options of the week, owned in 50 percent or less of Yahoo! standard leagues.

Still not getting many targets in a low-volume passing game, Clay’s ceiling is even harder to pin down with Tyrod Taylor likely sitting out after suffering a knee contusion. Nathan Peterman was an unmitigated disaster in his lone start, but if he’s under center, Buffalo will probably dial up a low-risk game plan with short passes. That could involve Clay as a safety valve, but it’s risky nonetheless. He at least has a good matchup with the Indianapolis Colts.

Thomas has somewhat come to life with three touchdowns and 20 catches in his last five games. He barely gets any yards after the catch, so he’s more appealing in PPR leagues when he doesn’t find the end zone. A boom-or-bust red zone weapon is about what we can expect when he faces the New England Patriots this week. Thomas had five catches for 52 yards when these teams last met in Week 12.

Seals-Jones predictably cooled off with just two catches for 44 yards last week, but he still saw five targets, all but confirming that Blaine Gabbert will keep looking his way down the stretch. Averaging an absurd 18.9 yards per catch, Seals-Jones is probably the best option for Gronk owners looking for a home-run streamer. The Cardinals get the Tennessee Titans next.

Njoku had probably the best game of his rookie year, hauling in four catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. The yardage was his season-high and he still saw a fair share of targets, even with the offense revolving around the returning Josh Gordon. Rookie tight ends are always hard to trust, but if the Browns keep Njoku involved, he has the big-play ability to pay dividends. Njoku is another high-risk, high-reward play against the Green Bay Packers this week.