The One Tight End You Need in Your Super Bowl DFS Lineup

Tight end can be a forgotten position in fantasy football. While it fits with the other skill positions in discussion, the scoring is much closer to kickers and D/ST groups, causing fantasy owners to ignore it in a sense if they don't have a top player at the position.

We don't have a great set of TEs playing in the Super Bowl. New England has a solid veteran, while the Seahawks have a few young players with upside but no consistent performers. That could make the choice pretty simple for those building DFS lineups for the big game.

Let's look at the tight ends who will play in the Super Bowl and determine which guy is the best player for DFS. We'll look at each individual likely to get on the field for more than a few plays and give a ranking at the end. Most stats are from NFL.com.

Use FantasySP's weekly projections to find the players expected to excel and help make your toughest lineup decisions!

New England Patriots

Hunter Henry

Henry finished as TE4 in standard scoring and TE9 in PPR this season. He averaged 3.5 receptions and 45.2 yards per game with seven touchdowns, fine production but also the kind that leaves a low floor, especially against a good defense.

Seattle was most vulnerable against tight ends, one thing in Henry's favor despite the Seahawks' defensive proclivity. They allowed the fewest yards per pass attempt but the eighth-most fantasy points per game to TEs. The position averaged more than six receptions and 60 yards per game with six touchdowns on the season.

Henry caught three passes for 64 yards and a touchdown in the opening playoff game against the Chargers, but he combined for just three catches and 17 yards in the two games since. That came against great defenses and in a snowstorm, so it's reasonable to expect something better on Sunday.

Henry is unquestionably the best fantasy tight end playing in the Super Bowl. The only question is price, and we will talk more about that at the bottom.

Austin Hooper

Going with a backup tight end is simply a play of using a super-cheap player and hoping that they score a touchdown. Hooper is $5,000 cheaper on DraftKings ($7,000 for Henry, $2,000 for Hooper with a $50,000 budget), but there's a reason for that: Henry is simply on the field more and produces much more.

Hooper averaged just over one catch and 16 yards per game during the season, and he has caught one pass for 14 yards in the playoffs so far.

Seattle Seahawks

AJ Barner

Barner played all 17 games and finished as TE14 in both standard and PPR. He averaged just over three catches and 30 yards per game with six touchdowns, a player worthy of streaming consideration.

The Patriots allowed the 10th-fewest yards per pass attempt and finished right near the middle in fantasy points given up to tight ends; it's fair to call this a slightly-below-average matchup for the Seattle tight ends and one we would never target during the regular season.

Houston's tight ends had a decent day against New England in the Divisional Round (three players combined for six catches and 70 yards), but the position has otherwise not really done anything in the postseason against the Pats, including no touchdowns.

Elijah Arroyo

Going with Arroyo is the same bet as Hooper: that the player in question will score a touchdown while not touching the ball much. It's a bad bet unless you are simply dead set on saving money at this position.

Arroyo caught 15 passes and had one touchdown in 13 games; he last played on December 7, missing the final four games of the season and both playoff games. It would be an upset if he caught more than one pass in the Super Bowl, let alone got into the end zone. Eric Saubert is another backup name in Seattle who isn't on our radar (four catches in 11 games this season).

FantasySP Who Should I Start?

We have a start/sit tool here at FantasySP that allows you to compare players to help make lineup decisions. It's no surprise that Henry is the top option among the guys listed, and it's not close.

Price in DFS contests is the only thing that could possibly swing it the other way. I mentioned above that Henry costs $7,000 on DraftKings, and Barner is listed at $4,800, a decent discount.

If cost allows, put Henry in your lineup. There is a low floor with everyone on the Patriots, as Seattle's defense is top-end, but we could say the same thing about most of the Seahawks, including their tight ends. I'm OK going with Barner if you can use that extra $2,200 to secure Jaxon Smith-Njigba, for example, but Henry is much more likely to have a good statistical Super Bowl than any other TE.

Super Bowl Tight End Rankings

1. Hunter Henry, NE
2. AJ Barner, SEA
3. Austin Hooper, NE
4. Elijah Arroyo, SEA