Fantasy Football Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Kyle Pitts, Juwan Johnson

Two weeks in the books, that’s two weeks of data. With three weeks, we can officially highlight some trends, but as of now, we can at least piece together what teams would like to do in ideal conditions. That’s how it goes in the early fantasy football season - research and watch as much football as you can and do your best.

So that’s what we are doing here. I’m doing my best to help you out by sharing my half PPR rankings at the tight end position - for free. Mainly because I love and respect the Reddit community, and I do my best to contribute where I can. If you want to further help yourself out (and also support me), my rankings for every single position, for every single format, are available to Fantasy Alarm Members here. If you use promo code COOP25 that gives you an additional 25% off our membership when you sign up! If I’ve ever helped you with your fantasy football team, becoming a Fantasy Alarm member is the single best way you can help us out - and it doesn’t go unnoticed!

These rankings below are just for Week 3. If you want my rest of season tight end rankings, in our patented Yin & Yang Tight End format, those are available here at the bottom of this article. As always, I’ll be available for comments or concerns in the Twitter or Reddit threads, so feel free to weigh in there with your own thoughts - or any questions you have for this week!

*Players highlighted in red have injury concerns that we need to monitor

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 1

Trey McBride and Brock Bowers remain in a world of their own for now. He was ramped up in the second half of last week’s game, and Pete Carroll emphasized how important it was for Bowers to play more, so we’re starting him where we have him.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 2

The guys have been great so far, no doubt about it. Warren returned to practice today so he should be good to go. As far as Tucker Kraft goes, we need to know if Tucker Kraft is actually going to be healthy before we use him as he reportedly suffered a knee injury in practice today of which the severity is unknown. The other reason Warren goes ahead of Tucker Kraft for now is that Kraft does have a pass-block rate of 17.2% which is a bit high for us. Jayden Reed being out is good news for Kraft's upside but he’s been asked to block some on pass downs which is partially why he only has 10 targets through two games. He could do a little extra pass-blocking with Myles Garrett this week but let's face it - you are starting Kraft if he’s a full go. You will likely need a backup plan though given the knee concerns so late in the week. Kraft has bye week 5 so missing this week could easily turn into three weeks.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 3

Sam LaPorta had great usage in the Week 1 loss with 80% of his routes run from a WR spot - he never cracked 60% in a game in all of last year. In the win last week, his usage looked more like last year with a 55.5% WR rate and 18.5% pass block rate. This game has shootout potential, though, so he’s a good option. Travis Kelce has his first plus matchup of the year with NYG, so he should be fine. Juwan Johnson and Kyle Pitts are two highly athletic guys who have quietly gotten great deployment lately - we all know about Johnson’s first two games, but Pitts had a 100% route participation in Week Two.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 4

T.J. Hockenson will fall drastically in these rankings next week if he does nothing again, as Jordan Addison will be back. The bet this week is that Carson Wentz is an improvement over JJ McCarthy. The years with the highest endzone targets for Dallas Goedert actually came with Wentz as the QB, and that was when they had Zach Ertz. Speaking of Ertz, he will move up these rankings for the Sunday update if Marcus Mariota is back. This tier is basically just your best floor plays.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 5

This tier represents some more high-risk, high-reward plays. Chig Okonkwo has been getting the deployment and has 97th percentile speed, so he could break out one of these weeks. But Cam Ward has not been good. Harold Fannin relies on volume as he’s fourth on his team in routes. Hunter Henry has upside in any given week, but Josh McDaniels has had him pass block on a nightmarish 21.4% of snaps. Mark Andrews continues to slide down these rankings, but we are looking at another shootout.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 6

This tier is two players who may or may not play this week. If you don’t have an IR spot and only roster one TE, you should prioritize players in the five tiers above, as these guys aren’t necessarily “must start”.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 7

We are hopeful for Ja’Tavion Sanders. Last week was nice, but the Panthers ran 85 plays and dropped back to pass 65 times, which is not sustainable in any way. Evan Engram has been a part-time player, and he has a back issue. Jonnu Smith is also a part-time guy that pass blocks a ton. Jake Tonges is a sneaky guy, especially in DFS.

Week 3 Tight End Rankings: Tier 8

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