Who Do You Trust at Tight End? Week 8 Tiers, From Stars to Drops

Tight end is the hardest spot in fantasy to fill. We sorted every relevant tight end into five tiers based on their scoring, their share of the team’s targets, and what’s happening around them.

Every tight end here is judged on points a game, their share of the team’s targets, and which way that role is moving, plus the injuries and quarterback changes around them. Points alone can lie at tight end, where one touchdown can be half a week. Target share shows whether the role behind those points is real.

Tier 1: The stars

These four are the tight ends worth building a lineup around. Each gets about a quarter of their team’s targets or more, so the matchup doesn’t matter: they play every week.

Brock Bowers has been the best tight end in football in his five games. Trey McBride is the safest: 93% of Arizona’s snaps and 29% of the targets, the biggest share at the position.

George Kittle is playing 91% of San Francisco’s snaps, and his share of the targets has climbed to 25% over the last three weeks. He’s already scored five touchdowns, a pace that’s hard to keep up, but the role is a star’s.

Isaiah Likely had a quiet Week 7 (3.2 points on four targets), but the Giants threw just 28 passes after 54 and 47 the two weeks before. Likely has also been on recent practice reports with foot, knee and groin issues, so watch his status this week. Before that, he scored 32.4 and 23.9 in back-to-back games, and his 23% share of the targets lately is still one of the biggest at the position.

Tier 2: Start every week

Not stars, but locked into your lineup. Each has a steady role and a real chance at a big week.

Colston Loveland is the riser of this tier. His targets over his last four games: 9, 5, 7 and 12. He scored 18.5 and 19.9 the last two weeks. If he’s on your bench or your waiver wire, fix that.

Tyler Warren has a star’s workload when healthy, but he’s missed the last two games. Tucker Kraft is steady: 81% of the snaps lately, and 16% of Green Bay’s targets on the season, and he’s turned a corner after a slow start: 6.5 points a game in Weeks 1–3, 12.9 since.

Sam LaPorta and Travis Kelce are the ones to watch. LaPorta plays nearly every snap, but his share of Detroit’s targets has slipped to 12% recently. Kelce’s 11.7 points a game leans on one 25-point game; he’s been under 10 in three of his last four.

Dalton Kincaid is boom or bust: 18.0 and 22.5 points in his first two games, three straight games under 4, then 10.8 on eight targets in Week 6. He’s questionable coming off Buffalo’s bye, but his share of the targets is back up to 21% lately.

Tier 3: Streaming options

Start them in good matchups or when your starter is out. Each has a usable role, but not one you can count on every week.

Kyle Pitts is the most interesting name on this list. His season line (9.0 points a game, TE21) is dragged down by two Cooper Rush starts that produced 2.5 points combined. In Michael Penix Jr.’s five starts he’s averaging 12.1, and over the last three weeks his targets jumped to 6, 7 and 5 with 18% of Atlanta’s targets. The catch: all four of his touchdowns came in those three weeks. Without them, he’s at 7.3 points a game in Penix starts. Since 2019, tight ends with a jump in role like his finished top-12 only 17 of 38 times, and Pitts himself had jumps that faded in 2021 and 2024.

Dallas Goedert has the best season average here, but in only four games. Harold Fannin Jr. plays 88% of Cleveland’s snaps and bounced back with nine targets and 13.1 points last week after two quiet games. Brenton Strange has a steady 19% share. Hunter Henry is quietly rising, with 11.2, 13.4, 14.8 and 14.1 points over his last four games. T.J. Hockenson looked like he was losing his role, but that was an injury: he left Week 5 early, missed Week 6, and was back at 76% of the snaps last week.

Tier 4: Sleepers

Likely sitting on your waiver wire, with roles that are growing. Worth a stash in deeper leagues.

Terrance Ferguson is the stash with the most upside. In Week 2, his best game, he had nine targets and 17.4 points. He hurt his ankle in Week 3 and went on injured reserve, and he’s eligible to return in Week 8. The opening is real: Higbee, who took over the role, has faded to 4.2 and 3.4 points the last two weeks. Check the Rams’ practice reports before you count on a return date.

Greg Dulcich has seen five or more targets in three of his last four games and scored 13.6 last week, with no touchdowns yet. Chig Okonkwo went from 3.6 and 2.5 points in his first games to 10.0 and 13.9 in his last two, and more targets are coming: Terry McLaurin is out for the season with a torn patellar tendon, so Washington comes out of its bye with one fewer receiver to feed.

Tier 5: Potentially droppable

In 10- and 12-team leagues, these roster spots may be used better on a sleeper.

Mark Andrews is a Lamar Jackson story. With Jackson starting in Weeks 1 to 4, Andrews got about 24% of Baltimore’s targets and averaged 9.7 points a game. Since Jackson hurt his ankle in Week 4, Tyler Huntley has started, Andrews’ share has fallen to about 14%, and he’s averaged 3.8. Baltimore is actually throwing more with Huntley, but the targets have gone to Zay Flowers (9, 11 and 11 the last three weeks). Jackson is listed as out. In shallow leagues you can drop Andrews now; in deeper leagues, hold him until Jackson is back, when he goes back to being a streaming option.

Mike Gesicki is the trap. His 11.9 points a game would make him a weekly starter, but it’s built almost entirely on touchdowns, and his role is shrinking.

Tyler Higbee is a volume story. From Weeks 3 to 5, Matthew Stafford threw 55, 51 and 54 passes, and Higbee scored 20.2, 11.7 and 13.3. The last two weeks the Rams threw just 33 and 29 times, Higbee’s share of the targets slipped from 15% to about 12%, and he got four and three targets. With Ferguson eligible to return, his role could shrink again.

Sources: weekly player stats, play-by-play and snap counts from nflverse (CC BY 4.0), PPR, regular seasons. Injury reporting: Roundtable, RotoBaller, Gulf News and WJLA (linked in the text); Isaiah Likely’s practice reports via RotoBaller and Stacked Fantasy. Tight end comparison: 2019–2025 tight ends whose role jumped over the three weeks before Week 8, with five or more games after. 2026 numbers are through Week 7; Dallas and Philadelphia play Monday night, so Dallas Goedert’s and Jake Ferguson’s numbers don’t include Week 7 yet.