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Which tight ends will shine in Week 5 for your fantasy football teams? We’ll take a look at all of them in our PPR rankings.
Welcome to Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season, or as I like to call it, post-apocalypse tight end town. I’m still working on it. As for Week 4, we had some good tight end games, but not from players who have had good games in Weeks 1-3. We continue to try hitting a moving target when picking these guys each week and they are too quick to run back down into their burrow to hibernate a week or three.
This week was the re-re-re-emergence of Taysom Hill, as he found the end zone twice as a rusher. Injuries have kept him down, but when available, he remains a big part of this offense around the goal-line. Of course he got hurt again, as they seem to think the old TE/QB/RB is Derrick Henry, so we’ll need to keep an eye on that.
Another tight end to pop back into elite fantasy status for a week was Travis Kelce himself. The team likely wanted to get him going after a slow start to the season, but a knee injury to Rashee Rice made Kelce’s usage imperative to come out the week with a win. Unless the Chiefs find someway to trade for another top receiver, Kelce is in for a big workload moving forward.
Not one tight end saw double-digit targets in Week 5, but Tucker Kraft and Cade Otton along with Kelce tied at the top with nine targets each. That’s the second big target game for Otton in a row, but he hasn’t turned those targets into all that much offensively.
Your fantasy TE9 and TE10 for the week are none other than AJ Barner and Blake Whiteheart. Just an FYI.
Week 5 tight end bye weeks
Sam Laporta, Dallas Goedert, Will Dissly, Chig Okonkwo
Week 5 tight end injuries
Trey McBride, Cardinals
McBride missed last week’s game due to a concussion. Usually a player can return with just one missed game, but we’ll still need to see him practice and be cleared of the injury.
David Njoku, Browns
Njoku returned to practice last week, but was unable to play as he returns from his ankle injury. He should have a much better chance to suit up this week if he can get in a good week of practice.
Evan Engram, Jaguars
Engram’s hamstring injury is considered “day-to-day,” per Eugene Frenette. The hope is that he’ll be able to return to practice this week and have a chance to play, but we’ll need to keep our eyes out for practice reports to see if he has a chance.
Taysom Hill, Saints
Hill is getting beat up pretty badly as a 34-year old running back this season. He already had a bruised lung and now he has a rib injury. He did score two touchdowns in Week 4, but his body might not be able to take much more of that goal-line work.
Week 5 tight end sleepers
Tucker Kraft, Packers at Rams
Kraft, like many of the Packers pass catchers last week, had a big fantasy game. He caught 6-of-9 targets for 53 yards and a touchdown. And this week he faces a weak Rams defense, that ranks 23rd in fantasy points allowed to tight ends.
Cole Kmet, Bears vs. Panthers
Kmet isn’t a lock to get a big workload each week, especially with the talent Chicago has at wide receiver, but when he does, he’s good enough to get you useful fantasy points. This week the Bears host a Panthers team that has gotten a big boost from QB Andy Dalton on offense. What we’re hoping for from this game is the Panthers to put up points and make the Bears play catch up, much like they did against the Titans two weeks ago. If that happens, Kmet will see enough work. The Panthers pass defense ranks 28th in EPA, which makes Kmet a top 10 tight end this week, but if the game flow works out, he has even more upside.
