Koerner’s Week 8 Fantasy Football TE Tiers: Greg Olsen Back to TE1 Status?

Below you’ll find my tight end tiers for Week 7 fantasy football. These are based on standard scoring.

As a reminder, these tiers are not updated after publication. If you want my most up-to-date rankings for PPR, Standard and Half-Point PPR leagues, check out this post.

And, yes, my tiers will be part of our Action Network subscription this season. Be sure to check out everything that comes with a sub here.

Koerner’s Tight End Tiers

Tier 1
Travis Kelce (vs. DEN)

Fantasy football’s new No. 1 TE will have Tier 1 all to himself the rest of the season until further notice.

Tier 2
Zach Ertz (@ JAX)

Ertz now has either 100-plus yards and/or a touchdown in four straight games. He has failed to either surpass 70 yards or score a touchdown in only one game this season. His consistency at fantasy’s most volatile/thin position makes him extremely valuable.

Tier 3
George Kittle (@ ARI)
Jared Cook (vs. IND)

Cook is coming off two poor games and always carries a low-floor risk to go with his high ceiling. Unfortunately, with the tight end position, you can’t try to be perfect and try to guess the games when he’ll disappear.

You are simply going to have to take those punches and leave him in every week to catch his good weeks. Cook could benefit from Amari Cooper’s departure with a couple extra targets per game, and that might help give him a bit more stability going forward.

Tier 4
Eric Ebron (@ OAK)
Rob Gronkowski (@ BUF)

It’s still early in the week, so take my Gronk rank with a grain of salt. (Check back on my rankings before setting your lineup on Sunday.)

With Julian Edelman back, Josh Gordon fully up to speed with the offense and James White playing a massive role in the passing game, it makes sense for the Pats to limit Gronk in what should be a cake-walk matchup against the Bills.

Tier 5
Trey Burton (vs. NYJ)
Jimmy Graham (@ LAR)
David Njoku (@ PIT)

All three tight ends have become every-week TE1s whom we simply need to plug in each week and forget about. David Njoku has really benefited from the Browns making the switch to Baker Mayfield, topping 50 receiving yards in each game Mayfield has started.

Tier 6
Jordan Reed (@ NYG)
O.J. Howard (@ CIN)
Vance McDonald (vs. CLE)

Each of these tight ends has a very prominent backup behind them, which causes their projections to take a hit.

Tier 7
Kyle Rudolph (vs. NO)
Evan Engram (vs. WAS)
C.J. Uzomah (vs. TB)
Greg Olsen (vs. BAL)

This Tier really presents the lowest-floor TE1s. They all typically need to score a touchdown to offer any meaningful value. Expect Engram and Olsen to rise in my ranks as they regain their health and their typical role.

Tier 8
Ben Watson (@ MIN)
Ricky Seals-Jones (vs. SF)

The only TE1 who is on BYE this week is Austin Hooper, so we might not need to go too deep at tight end this week. This is about as deep as I would hope you need to go for a potential spot-start streamer.

Tier 9
Charles Clay (vs. NE)
Christopher Herndon (@ CHI)
Jeff Heuerman (@ KC)
Nick O'Leary (@ HOU)
Cameron Brate (@ CIN)
Dallas Goedert (@ JAX)
Mike Gesicki (@ HOU)

For those needing to pick a tight end from this scrap pile, I wouldn’t pull my hair out too much when trying to make a decision. They all likely need to score this week to offer much help.

The one tight end who is on the rise and might be worth a dice roll: Chris Herndon. The Jets were raving about him in the preseason until he suffered a minor injury that slowed him down a bit.

He seems to be gaining steam in this offense now with Quincy Enunwa and Terrelle Pryor out. After scoring a touchdown in back-to-back games he gets to face a Bears defense that has been somewhat susceptible to allowing tight ends to hit pay dirt as of late.

In the past four games, Chicago has allowed touchdowns to Nick O’Leary, Cameron Brate, Ricky Seals-Jones, and Will Dissly. Granted, it’s a small sample size I’m not putting too much stock in, but it’s just one more reason to take make Herndon a “what the heck” tight end play this week.