Ball Em' or Bench 'Em: Week 12 Tight Ends

The final stretch of the fantasy season is here, as most leagues have only three weeks left before the playoffs. For most of us, securing a week 12 win can make or break our shot at the postseason, and with two big time teams (Kansas City and Arizona) on bye, we have a list of potentials that can save your week. And when we say "potentials"...we're just looking for double-digit points out of these guys.

Six teams played on Thanksgiving, and we saw Dawson Knox and Dalton Schultz ball out for Buffalo and Dallas, respectively, but we also saw Darren Waller get injured. Two Bears tight ends, Cole Kmet and Jimmy Graham, both broke double digit fantasy points, and TJ Hockenson brought in a touchdown to save what was looking like a horrible holiday.

The tight end must-starts are easy, we're assuming Waller, Hockenson, Knox, and Schultz were already played in your league, and Kelce and Ertz are on bye. There's 8 other tight ends that need to be started this week, and the obvious starters are George Kittle, Mark Andrews, Rob Gronkowski, Dallas Goedert, and Kyle Pitts. The other three...

Anyways, here are the fringe TEs we like this week, and the ones we don't.

Ball 'Em

Tyler Higbee, LAR

Higbee has not been fantasy-relevant this year, despite the Rams being one of the more successful passing teams in the NFL. Much of this has to do with the plethora of receiving options for Matthew Stafford, but also the fact that those receivers have been so efficient with their catches. That is all changing with the loss of Robert Woods for the season, and replacement Odell Beckham Jr isn't scaring any defenders. Cooper Kupp is a monster, but Van Jefferson won't be eating up all those lost targets by himself. Higbee and Stafford have an established connection, it just hasn't been required too much yet. Green Bay doesn't allow a ton of points to tight ends (what team does this year?), but a changed dynamic in the Rams offense profiles to expound Higbee's role.

Pat Freiermuth, PIT

Freiermuth, also known as Firemuth, has struggled with volume in Pittsburgh since taking over the number one role. He hasn't struggled in the red zone department however, and is quickly becoming one of Big Ben's go-to end zone targets. This gives Freiermuth solid low-end TE1 value for those needing a Kelce replacement, in a week where Pittsburgh plays Cincinnati who is susceptible to allowing fantasy points to tight ends.

Dan Arnold, JAX

Okay, everyone is telling you not to play Arnold after he saw one target (he didn't catch it) in week 11 against the 49ers. That happened, and the first stage of recovery from grief is acceptance so let's just accept that. Okay, moving on, up until last week Arnold saw 25 targets in three games, equaling 17 receptions for nearly 200 yards. There will always be ups and downs with rookie quarterbacks, but Lawrence won't simply abandon his check down tight end forever. Lawrence also lost his favorite receiving target Jamal Agnew for the year last week, meaning Arnold is set to a healthy share of targets in a favorable matchup against Atlanta in week 12.

Sleepers

Tyler Conklin, MIN

Jonnu Smith, NE

Bench 'Em

Noah Fant, DEN

The Chargers defense is pretty good against the pass, but a lot of that is because they are good at pass rushing. The Broncos are not very good at pass defending, and under pressure Teddy Bridgewater tends to have a rough day. Fant is a talented tight end but not elite enough yet to overcome a defense removing him from the game plan. Fant doesn't run traditional dump routes either, that's more of what his counterpart Albert Okweugbunam does, so that also limits the garbage production he could attain even in a loss.

Mike Gesicki, MIA

Gesicki was doing really well with Jacoby Brissett, but once Tua came back his load share decreased. A lot of it has to do with the way Tua plays, and he tends to look for Jaylen Waddle more than his tight end. Gesicki isn't out of the starter question for the rest of the year, but until we see a game script that involves him more, he should be on the bench.