Week 10 Waiver Wire Tight End Priority List | Selecting Between Cade Otton, Jonnu Smith, Luke Musgrave, Gerald Everett, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Tyler Conklin and Juwan Johnson
Tight end remains a tough position for fantasy owners to figure out, but at least there's several options out there on the waiver wire.
After already discussing quarterbacks and also some of the top running backs and then options at wide receiver, it’s time to finally tackle the tight end position.
For these stories, we’ve been focusing on players with an own percentage of 50% or lower. These guys are available in more leagues, so that’s why we focus on them instead of some of the more popular guys who might only be available in several leagues.
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Tight Ends to Target
For week 10, we are going to focus on Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Cade Otton, Atlanta Falcons’ Jonnu Smith, Green Bay Packers’ Luke Musgrave, Los Angeles Chargers’ Gerald Everett, Tennessee Titans’ Chigoziem Okonkwo, New York Jets’ Tyler Conklin and New Orleans Saints’ Juwan Johnson.
The hottest name of the bunch is Otton, who had a career game in week 9. He caught six of his nine targets for 70 yards and two touchdowns.
I wrote a lot about Otton earlier in the week. To summarize, he’s a tight end that’s played nearly every offensive snap this season. He wasn’t involved much in the passing game early on, but has stacked a couple solid showings in a row. Now off his best game, the hope is he remains heavily involved and can be an average fantasy option every week.
We shouldn’t really be surprised with Smith’s production anymore, but here we are again talking about him as a solid waiver option. He caught five of his six targets in week 9 for 100 yards and a touchdown.
He’s had three or more catches in all but two contests. Smith has topped 30 receiving yards in all but three games, and has over 50 yards on three occasions now. The touchdown was Smith’s second.
Musgrave scored his first NFL touchdown in week 9. He finished with 51 yards and the score on three grabs and four targets.
It was the first time Musgrave reached 50 receiving yards since week 1. The 51 yards also set a new career high. He’s reached 30 or more receiving yards in all but three games.
While he’s not flashy, he’s been fairly consistent, albeit fairly underwhelming. Maybe the touchdown grab is the start of a hot streak for the rookie.
Everett had back-to-back solid fantasy outings (primarily because of touchdown grabs) coming into week 9. He didn’t score a touchdown in week 9, and his fantasy showing was another down one after making just two receptions for 18 yards.
It was the third time he’s failed to reach 20 receiving yards, and he’s got just one contest in which he went over 30 yards. You’d think in an offense down two of its top receivers that Everett would be involved more, but he just hasn’t been.
It was a tough matchup against the Jets, and really only Austin Ekeler and Keenan Allen had solid fantasy nights, so maybe we should give a pass to Everett.
Okonkwo played on Thursday night, so it might be hard to recall what he did by now. He hauled in three of the four passes thrown his way for 28 yards.
That’s clearly not a great outing, but he’s been pretty consistent this season, which is more than many fantasy tight ends can boast. He’s had three or more catches in all but two contests. Okonkwo hasn’t topped 35 receiving yards, but also only has three games under 20 yards. He’s yet to score a touchdown.
Conklin had one of his better showings of the season on Monday night against the Chargers. He caught all six of his targets for 66 yards.
It was the fourth time this season he’s topped 50 receiving yards. The six targets matched a season high, and the six grabs were a new season high.
He’s been kind of boom or bust, as the four games he hasn’t reached 50 yards, Conklin finished with under 30 yards, including games with 2 and 0 yards. Ironically, his week 9 showing came right after he was shutout in week 8.
Johnson had one of his more productive games in week 9. He caught all five of his targets for 29 yards and a touchdown.
In what was a surprisingly down game for the Saints’ offense, Johnson finished with the second-most targets (only behind Chris Olave). The five targets matched a season high, and his five grabs were two more than in any other contest.
Johnson has only played in five games now, so this showing simply could mean he’s feeling closer to 100% again. Now we all wonder if he can consistently produce solid fantasy showings.
The Priority List
Like we have for the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers, we’ll break this section into two parts. We will identify the best long-term options at tight end of this group, and then determine who the best starters for week 10 might be - in case you just need to fill in for a player that’s injured or on their bye week.
I like Otton as the best long-term option. He’s on the field a ton, which gives him lots of opportunities to produce. He’s really only produced quality fantasy showings of late, but that might mean he and quarterback Baker Mayfield are developing a good connection, and is one I think can consistently produce for the rest of the season.
I think I’d go with Smith next because he’s delivered more often than the other tight ends left. He’s not even looked at as the top player at his position on the team, but he continues to deliver week after week.
Although there’s more upside with Musgrave, I trust Conklin more than him for the rest of this season. Musgrave will have his big weeks, but I like Conklin to produce the more steady fantasy results.
Everett, Okonkwo and Johnson are all pretty equal in my eyes. With that in mind, you should go with the best touchdown threat, which I think is Johnson, even though Everett has one more score this season (Everett has also had two extra games to reach his numbers in). I’d finally go with Everett over Okonkwo, simply because Everett has scored and Okonkwo hasn’t.
All of these tight ends play in week 10. Of course, the top fantasy options are the ones with tougher matchups ahead, so that complicates things when determining the best week 10 starter.
I would trust the recent results over the matchups and go with Otton as the top week 10 tight end in this discussion in his matchup with the Titans. Give me Smith against the Arizona Cardinals for my second choice.
I’d take Conklin against the Las Vegas Raiders next, followed by Johnson against the Minnesota Vikings. I’d finally take the guy with the best matchup on paper, which is Everett against the Detroit Lions. I’d then go with Musgrave and his tough matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers ahead of Okonkwo and his much more favorable clash with the Buccaneers.
Again, this is more of a gut feeling and trusting the results from the season than it is simply taking the best matchups available. It doesn’t always work, but I feel more comfortable starting someone who has more consistently produced over a player who hasn’t done much, even if the matchup says to start them.
