Are Sam LaPorta and Evan Engram Weekly Fantasy Football Starters?

Sam LaPorta started his career with two good games, catching five passes in each and gaining 102 total yards. Week 3 served as his coming out party: eight catches for 84 yards and his first touchdown. He had 11 targets in Week 3 and had 22 through in those first three weeks combined, less than only T.J. Hockenson's 28 among tight ends. LaPorta has the most receiving yards at the position and is tied for the second-most receptions. LaPorta followed up with another solid outing last night on Thursday Night Football, catching four of five targets for 56 yards.

Evan Engram has 21 targets and has been a steady receiving force on a sputtering team. He has the third-most receiving yards among tight ends and is tied for second in catches with LaPorta. Engram hasn't had a huge game yet, but he's been very consistent, with between five and seven receptions each game for between 49 and 67 yards. That doesn't sound overly exciting, but guaranteeing yourself double-digit PPR points at a position that about half your league has trouble filling is a nice little boost.

I believe LaPorta and Engram are weekly fantasy starters at tight end, and I am setting out to make that case (or prove myself wrong in the process). We'll look at the volume these players are getting, what it means next to other tight ends, and if we can expect them to regularly be top-10 tight ends moving forward.

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Volume is King

LaPorta's 22 targets are second-most on his team behind Amon-Ra St. Brown (28), with no other player above 13. LaPorta accounts for 22.7% of all targets in Detroit (97 total). Engram is third on his team in targets, with his 21 behind Calvin Ridley (26) and Christian Kirk (23), and, again, no other player has more than 13. He has received 18.6% of his team's targets. Here are the top five tight ends in targets through three weeks and their share on the team:

Player	Receptions	Targets	Target Share
T.J. Hockenson	23	28	20.7%
Sam LaPorta	18	22	22.7%
Evan Engram	18	21	18.6%
Zach Ertz	14	20	25%
Darren Waller	12	20	20.8%

 

Hockenson leads the position in targets, but his target share isn't quite as big as some others here, as Minnesota has thrown the ball all over the place. Waller is first on his team in targets, Engram is third, and the three others are second. Hockenson is a fantasy no-brainer each week, and Waller has been portrayed that way (though he has struggled in two of his three games).

I am making the case for LaPorta and Engram here, but Ertz surprised me; I expected Arizona to be terrible, but they've been credible each week and just beat the Cowboys. Seeing the fourth-most targets among tight ends and a quarter of the targets on his team makes Ertz a player to consider if you don't have a solid option. Travis Kelce would also be way up here in each category if he didn't miss Week 1, but you don't need me to tell you how great he is again.

This shows that Laporta and (to a little bit lesser extent) Engram are key parts of their teams' offense and heavily involved in the gameplan. It's easy for numbers to be wonky in the first few weeks with a small sample, but each player has seen at least five targets in all three games, with more than 15 over the last two weeks.

Evan Engram, Sam Laporta Fantasy Football Profiles

Engram was tied for fifth in targets among tight ends last season, and he saw the third-most on his team with a 17.1% share, very similar to 2023. He finished as the fifth-highest-scoring tight end in PPR last year with that volume (sixth in standard). He had six games with at least eight targets in 2022 and has already hit that number twice this season.

Eighteen tight ends had at least Engram's four receiving touchdowns last season: only two players had more than his 73 receptions (Kelce and Hockenson, while Mark Andrews tied at 73), and only those three had more than Engram's 766 receiving yards. George Kittle and Dallas Goedert weren't far behind, and that group of six stood out from the crowd in fantasy scoring as well (not counting Taysom Hill).

Engram is on track for the same kind of year in 2023. He is on pace for 102 catches and 980 yards, each of which would shatter his career high. More likely, Engram will have a few slow weeks and a few hot weeks but be one of the most consistent tight ends in the league. A finish close to 2022 is highly attainable, with an increase in production very possible.

This matters for LaPorta because he is looking like the same type of player: a tight end who is part of a good offense and will be targeted among the top 10 at the position. LaPorta is on pace for 102 receptions for 1,054 yards. There have been a billion articles written about the historical struggles of rookie tight ends, but many of the best performances have come in the last decade. LaPorta was a second-round pick and expected to be used early, so this isn't production that came out of nowhere. LaPorta looks like he will be among the most targeted tight ends immediately.

Evan Engram, Sam LaPorta Rest of Season Fantasy Football Outlook

He hasn't scored a touchdown yet, but Engram's consistent production will get him there. The Jaguars' offense and quarterback Trevor Lawrence have struggled over the last two games with just nine and 17 points. Jacksonville did have over 400 yards of total offense in Week 3 after just 271 in Week 2, so there is an underlying reason for hope. The team will likely straighten out and have more efficient days moving forward.

Only 19 tight ends have scored a touchdown in 2023, and LaPorta is one of them. (Five players have more than one, and Donald Parham leads tight ends with three touchdowns on just six catches. Parham is the opposite of LaPorta and Engram and NOT a player I recommend.) Just two tight ends had more than seven touchdowns in 2022, and only three players hit that mark in 2021. Yardage is key at a position without bulk touchdowns, and LaPorta is the best in the league through three weeks.

I see plenty of reasons both Engram and LaPorta will keep getting targets and producing in fantasy football. (I don't believe in Ertz nearly as much, but that's something to watch.) Detroit and Jacksonville are expected to compete for the playoffs and will be looking for their best players to contribute often. Lawrence and Jared Goff are both good quarterbacks who will throw plenty of passes; Goff threw the sixth-most passes in 2022 (587), and Lawrence was seventh (584), so volume won't be an issue.

These are two weekly starters at tight end. They won't be available on the free agent wire, but you could probably trade for one of them (especially Engram) at a fairly low cost. Find one of the depth players you want to get in your lineup but never can and offer him to another owner for one of these guys, especially if they have a spare tight end. If you have one of these two, don't let go of them for nothing; make sure you get a solid piece in return (Jordan Addison, for instance) if you have the depth to trade a tight end.