For all intents and purposes, the NFL preseason is over. Well, it’s not officially over until the fourth games on Thursday night, but that’s only for the backups and fringe players trying to win a roster spot. The starters got their reps in the third game and will be taking the night off, with the key battles mostly settled by this point.
Fantasy football 2017: Performance of sleeper, bust tight end candidates from preseason Week 3
The preseason is just about over, so let’s look at some fantasy TE sleeper and bust candidates from the third weekend.
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It’s also the busiest week of the fantasy football preseason, when most leagues hold their drafts and make final preparations for the regular season. Or at least, the smart leagues waited until after the third preseason game to do their draft Our apologies if you drafted Julian Edelman or Spencer Ware last week.
Anyway, with the biggest weekend of preseason out of the way, let’s review some sleeper and bust candidates at the tight end position.
Potential sleepers
Julius Thomas, Miami Dolphins — At this point, Thomas is who he is. He’ll catch easy touchdown passes fro the goal line, and do little of note beyond that. His last preseason game was a good reminder of this, as Thomas had only two catches for 1 yard, and one of those was a score. This makes him impossible to own in PPR, but fantasy leagues that prioritize touchdown scoring make Thomas a little more palatable. He’s also playing with Jay Cutler, a big upgrade from Blake Bortles, so that’s something.
Dwayne Allen, New England Patriots — With Edelman done for the year, the Patriots could end up mixing and matching at the slot position. Allen is obviously behind Rob Gronkowski on the TE depth chart, and spent most of the preseason as a blocker, but he could get some chances as a pass catcher. He’s also someone to watch in deeper leagues given Gronk’s massive injury history.
Potential busts
Jared Cook, Oakland Raiders — It says a lot about Cook’s underwhelming career that 30 catches, 377 yards, and a touchdown was considered a “breakout” season. He’s getting some minor help again, this time playing with Derek Carr, but Cook was still not an inspiring fantasy play when he had Aaron Rodgers last year. He also missed six games with an injury and turned 30 years old in April. Maybe that theoretical talent and upside will finally come together this year, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Antonio Gates, Los Angeles Chargers — Gates is a living legend who is one touchdown away from breaking the all-time tight end record, held by Tony Gonzalez. He’ll almost certainly get it in Week 1. After that is a bit of a mystery with Hunter Henry’s role expanding in the offense. Gates still has streaming appeal as Philip Rivers’ favored red zone target, but at age 37, he’s no longer an every-week starter.
