Fantasy football 2019: week 1 – BOOM or BUST

Fantasy football tight end

BOOM:

Jared Cook, NO vs. HOU

Drew Brees‘ newest weapon Jared Cook has bounced around the league over the past several seasons despite being one of the league’s more-productive tight ends.

He finally showed glimpses of his ceiling in 2018 on the Raiders, seeing career-high numbers across the board on his way to finishing as fantasy’s overall TE5. This year, he joins a high-powered Saints offense that ranked 8th in total yards a season ago.

Cook may very well start the season with a bang against the Houston Texans, who ceded 12.9 FPPG to TEs last year, second-most in the league.

The team also opted to let starting safeties Tyrann Mathieu and Kareem Jackson walk in free agency, suggesting they could once again be near the bottom of the pack against the tight end position. Cook, who is arguably the best TE the Saints have had since Jimmy Graham, should please his owners with a big first week.

BUST:

David Njoku, CLE vs. TEN

Although he’s been drafted as a top-10 tight end this preseason, David Njoku is going to find it difficult to replicate his TE9 finish from a season ago now having to fend-off Jarvis Landry and newcomer Odell Beckham Jr. for targets in Cleveland’s offense.

Njoku, still just 23 years old, still profiles as a dangerous vertical threat, but a weapon that QB Baker Mayfield may use sparingly with OBJ now cemented as the team’s top red-zone target. He’ll have some big weeks here and there, but isn’t someone you should count on in the early-going.

Against the Titans, he may a hard time getting going. In 2018, Tennessee surrendered just 6.8 FPPG to the tight end spot. Maybe more impressively, the Titans also allowed just two TD receptions all year long from the position (tied for fewest in the NFL), suggesting you should look elsewhere for production in Week 1.

Sleeper:

Greg Olsen, CAR vs. LAR

At the age of 34, Greg Olsen‘s days as a top-tier fantasy tight end may be over. However, he’s still got a shot to be a fine bounce-back candidate in 2019 after being riddled by injuries over the past two seasons. In Week 1, he draws a match-up with the Los Angeles Rams.

If the Rams have one weak spot on defense, it’s against TEs. Last season, L.A.’s D ranked in the NFL’s bottom-three in receiving yards per game to the position.