Fantasy football 2019: 5 bold predictions – tight end edition
Fantasy Football 2019: 5 Bold Predictions – Tight End Edition
The wait is just about over. In just over 48 hours from now, we will be witnessing meaningful NFL football for the first time in six months when the Bears and Packers kickoff on Thursday night.
With that being said, here we have the concluding piece of the “bold predictions” series that we’ve been doing over the last several weeks. Last up: the dreaded tight end position. If you want to check out the articles for quarterback, running back, and wide receiver, you can find them here.
In recent years, if you weren’t an owner of Travis Kelce, Zach Ertz, or Rob Gronkowski, tight end has likely been a nightmare for your fantasy squad. Fear not! There’s a plethora of names this season that can be viable season-long options for your team.
I outline some names below that can help you achieve fantasy glory this season. Without further ado, let’s jump right into some bold predictions!
1. Hunter Henry will catch 12 touchdown passes.
How This is Bold:
L.A. Chargers’ tight end Hunter Henry is coming off an ACL injury that cost him the entire 2018 season. From 2016-17, Henry has a combined 12 touchdowns. The last Charger with 12 receiving TDs in a season was Antonio Gates in 2014.
Why This Will Come True:
Many would’ve backed the notion that Henry was on the cusp of a full breakout in 2018 before a heartbreaking knee injury in the preseason ended his season before it even started. Now back for vengeance, he once again looks like a surefire stud at the shallowest position fantasy football.
With Antonio Gates and Virgil Green now both out of the picture (saw a combined 146 targets over the past two seasons), Henry, who’s arguably been the most efficient tight end in the league since he was drafted in 2016, will see more opportunities than ever before.
While his career-highs in yardage and touchdowns are 579 and 8, respectively, we haven’t yet seen what he’s capable as the team’s true no. 1 tight end. As FantasyPros‘ Bobby Sylvester points out on Twitter, Henry has dominated over a larger sample size.
Take this into consideration as well: among all TEs from 2016-2017, Henry ranked first in fantasy points per target and second in fantasy points per snap. Great news, he’s played a whopping 93 percent of the Chargers’ first-team snaps this preseason, showing the team trusts him to shoulder a larger workload.
If his otherworldly efficiency can carry over to his newly-defined role in OC Ken Whisenhunt‘s offense, he’ll be a dominant fantasy asset. He’s likely to now see even more looks in what may be a pass-heavy approach by L.A. without their star running back Melvin Gordon, who doesn’t look like he’ll rejoin the team anytime soon.
They’ll especially need Henry to be reliable in the red-zone as someone will have to make up for Gordon’s touchdown production (38 total TDs in the last three seasons). All things considered, he could lead all TEs in end-zone trips this year.