Fantasy Football Week 6 Tight End Start/Sit: David Njoku, Darren Waller, and More
Three tight ends to start and three to sit in Week 6 of the NFL season.
The top tight end in standard fantasy scoring heading into Week 6 has fewer than 50 fantasy points. The top wide receiver is over 80 points, while the best quarterbacks and running backs have topped 100. This isn't an outlier: TEs score fewer fantasy points than the other skill positions.
It might be shocking that the position has about half as many points at the top as the others, but that's also normal. Last season, the top tight ends in standard were just over 150 points. The top receiver was close to 300 points, the top RB went over 300 points, and the top quarterback was over 400 points. Tight end is often more about the scraps than the feast.
Let's look at three tight ends to start and three to sit in Week 6 of the NFL season. There won't be any obvious names below, like Trey McBride. Instead, we have six guys who are good fantasy starters some weeks but are better left on the bench other times. Most stats are from NFL.com.
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Start
Harold Fannin and David Njoku, Cleveland Browns @ Pittsburgh Steelers
These two have been so close all season that I keep finding it impossible to separate them. They are both in the top three on the Browns in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and TDs:
- Fannin: 28 targets, 21 receptions, 173 receiving yards, 1 touchdown
- Njoku: 30 targets, 20 receptions, 195 receiving yards, 1 touchdown
With a lack of impact wide receivers, the Browns have been using both tight ends often. Jerry Jeudy leads the team with 35 targets and 197 yards, but he has just 15 receptions and hasn't scored. With rookie Dillon Gabriel now under center, even more short passes might be coming, so the tight ends look set for good usage.
Their individual presence does take away from each other a bit, but these guys can coexist because of the lack of weapons around them. Pass catching is a numbers game, and Cleveland might have the fewest NFL-level receivers of any team; Fannin has been a godsend as another playmaking pass catcher.
Both Fannin and Njoku are middling fantasy players worthy of consideration each week. The matchup against the Steelers puts them on the “start” side of things because Pittsburgh has given up the fifth-most yards per pass attempt and the fourth-most fantasy points to tight ends.
I favor the veteran Njoku slightly, but both guys fit into your fantasy lineup in Week 6 as decent options with top-10 potential at the position.
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints vs. New England Patriots
Like the Cleveland tight ends, Johnson has been able to find plenty of usage on a Saints team bereft of high-level skill players. Chris Olave is a good receiver, but he might be the only one who is truly better than Johnson; Rashid Shaheed and old Brandin Cooks (now 32) leave much to be desired.
Shaheed leads the team in receiving yards thanks to a big Week 5 that included an 87-yard touchdown, but Johnson is third in that category and second in both targets and receptions behind Olave. The return of Taysom Hill might be the biggest obstacle for Johnson, but Hill is a gadget player who still allows Johnson to do his thing as a traditional TE.
New England has given up the third-most yards per pass attempt and the seventh-most fantasy points to tight ends. They rank out really well against the run, but the Patriots have been shredded by the pass. Last week, they let Dalton Kincaid reach 100 yards for the first time in his career.
Johnson is a guy who has been heavily involved in the offense and had a few big games, and now he gets a great matchup against the Patriots. Johnson is worthy of a spot in a lineup in about every league in Week 6.
Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Kraft showed out big to start the season, scoring a touchdown in each of the first two games and reaching career highs with six receptions and 124 yards in Week 2. He hasn't been as good outside of that big performance, averaging 3.3 catches and 33.3 yards per game, but Kraft has been a feasible fantasy player.
Once again, it's the matchup that puts him in this spot. Cincinnati has allowed the seventh-most yards per pass attempt and the most fantasy points to tight ends. The position is averaging around seven catches and 70 yards per game against the Bengals while scoring two total touchdowns.
Both Sam LaPorta and Brock Wright caught touchdowns against Cincy last week, though Wright's TD came on a halfback pass from David Montgomery. It's an ongoing issue that passing games are tearing apart the Bengals, and tight ends have found consistent success.
Kraft is a decent fantasy player with great matchup here. He's not a weekly starter, as it looked like he might be, but Kraft is a good option against the right opponents.
Sit
Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills @ Atlanta Falcons
I mentioned Kincaid's big game from last week above, as he hauled in six passes for a career-high 108 yards. Kincaid regressed last year after a strong rookie season, but he was also dealing with injuries (which caused him to miss four full games). The former first-round pick has a high ceiling.
Kincaid scored two touchdowns in each of the past two seasons; he already has three this year. He's on pace for close to 70 catches, 1,000 yards, and 10 TDs. Kincaid is showing out as a potential fantasy fixture moving forward.
This is about as tough a matchup as a tight end can face right now according to the numbers, though. Atlanta has allowed the second-fewest yards per pass attempt and the fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends. The position is averaging just two receptions and 17.3 yards per game against the Falcons and hasn't scored a touchdown.
High-level players can do well against tough defenses, but we haven't seen Kincaid reach that peak yet. While he has been good and involved this season, Kincaid hasn't consistently been an impact player. Because of that, I feel better with him on the bench this week.
Kyle Pitts Sr., Atlanta Falcons vs. Buffalo Bills
On the opposite sideline from Kincaid is Pitts, a former top-five pick who has never come close to living up to that billing. Even when he topped 1,000 yards as a rookie, he only scored one touchdown and was on the fringe of being a fantasy starter in standard leagues.
Pitts is averaging five catches and 51 yards this season while scoring one touchdown. That's fine; it has him just outside the top 10 in both standard and PPR. While we keep waiting for Pitts to break out, though, it's becoming increasingly clear that his ceiling is probably somewhere in the middle, closer to an average player at his position.
The matchup is against the player here, as Buffalo has given up the fourth-fewest yards per pass attempt and second-fewest fantasy points per game to tight ends. The position is just as bad as they are against the Falcons: TEs have accumulated just 2.2 receptions and 22.6 yards per game against the Bills (Jets backup tight end Jeremy Ruckert did score a garbage-time touchdown in Week 2).
With a tough matchup, a middling passing game, and modest production in his career, Pitts is a guy better left on the bench this week. He has shown he can be involved, but that won't matter against one of the best tight end defenses around.
Darren Waller, Miami Dolphins vs. Los Angeles Chargers
Waller's first two games back have been something of a fairy tale, and there will be plenty of owners without a tight end who see him as a weekly starter. Maybe he will hit that level, but he has faced two sieve-like defenses in the Jets and Panthers, so it's important to wait and see it against tougher competition before anointing him.
Waller caught three passes for 27 yards and two touchdowns in Week 4. That's a great fantasy week, but it's modest production without the TDs. Week 5 was a more consistent outing, as Waller caught five passes for 78 yards and another score. It was rare that he topped any of those numbers in his final two seasons before sitting out 2024.
This will be his first chance against tougher competition to show that he belongs. The Chargers have been on a bit of a slide the past few weeks, but they are still allowing the third-fewest yards per pass attempt and sixth-fewest fantasy points per week to tight ends.
LA had a stout defense last season that matched those lofty rankings against both the pass and TEs, so it's not a surprise to see them back here, and it's likely that they will continue to shut down the position (and passing games) moving forward. The Chargers are one of the few teams that I'm not looking to go after with any fantasy players except the very best.
While the returns so far are tantalizing, I must recommend keeping Waller on the bench this week unless you really don't have another option. The upside is there, but this is a much tougher matchup that will make him prove his spot among the league's tight ends.
