Jason Mezrahi 
We finally made it to Week 1, and I don’t want anyone to sleep on NFL DFS tight ends. Tight ends are sometimes forgotten and left to the last pick in your lineup and that can easily leave you with a outcome of 0-2 points. This could be devastating for your chances of a takedown or simply cashing. Each week I will lay out my favorite options up top and the best value plays on the board as well. Once you’re done reading this article make sure to hop in our expert chat on Discord to stay up to date with lineup discussions.
Lets dive in to this Week 1 NFL DFS slate and talk some tight ends. We have fresh legs and a 14 game main slate and its pretty obvious where the discussion starts.
Travis Kelce $8300 DraftKings $8500 FanDuel
Travis Kelce is a tight end who puts up wide receiver numbers. You won’t find anyone close to him from a fantasy point production standpoint in the league. He provides consistency and averaged 23.7 DraftKings points per game last year. Kelce can hit your 100 yard bonus on DraftKings and eclipsed 30+ points 3 times last year. The man is a beast and simply the best target at the position if you can afford him. For cash games he’s the free square and with the value we can find at other positions I would start your lineup builds with Kelce in cash. He is a great play for tournaments as well, and I will be starting most of my builds with him and will fine value elsewhere.
Logan Thomas $4600 DraftKings $5600 FanDuel
Logan Thomas was responsible for making me a ton of money late last year. He has been a target of mine in season long drafts and a great landing spot for Week 1. He is a nice value piece if you can’t afford Kelce and provides a nice floor as well. Thomas has a 7 game streak brewing where he eclipsed 10+ DraftKings points to finish last year and if you can remember back that was with mediocre at best Quarterback play beside him. This year he gets an upgrade with Ryan Fitzpatrick leading the team, along with a offense who has more weapons which will draw coverage away from Thomas. The discount you get from dropping down from Kelce makes sense and while the raw upside may not be there we land on a safe floor of 10+ points.
Kyle Pitts $4400 DraftKings $6000 FanDuel
The rookie Pitts is ready to make a splash in the NFL after all the hype from draft day. Pitts is another wide receiver slotted at the tight end position. Depending how things shake out early in the season we could be looking at the WR2 in Pitts only chasing down Ridley as far as target share goes on Atlanta. He has a great matchup to pair with to have a breakout in Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles. I don’t see much changing in the Eagles secondary and we should be attacking this team early and often this season. Sitting at 48 points currently we have one of the better game environments to attack here and we could see fireworks right out of the gate for these Falcons.
Gerald Everett $3400 DraftKings $4800 FanDuel
A new home for Everett combined with the fact he gets upgrade at the Quarterback position has me invested in Everett as a late round sleeper for season long fantasy and as a value piece in week 1. Whenever given the opportunity to be the TE1 for the Rams, Everett stepped up and had productive days and that was with Goff throwing him the ball. Now he steps onto the field alongside Wilson in a offensive scheme which will feature him Metcalf and Lockett. The Colts have a solid defense but Vegas still has this game with a total of 48.5 which is one of the highest on the board. At this price on DraftKings, I feel like Everett provides the security not to leave you with a big goose egg and has the upside to produce 10+ fantasy points in week 1.
Anthony Firkser $3200 DraftKings $4700 FanDuel
With Jonnu Smith out of town, Anthony Firkser steps into the #1 Tight End roll for a team that will be putting up points every week. This Titans offense will impressive if they stay healthy with no weakness to target. The Titans have one of the best running backs in the game in Henry, a duo of two elite receivers with Brown and Jones, and these will open up things for Firkser and provide some red zone opportunities as well. Pair that with the fact they get one of the best game environments and matchups on the board and what seems like a risk could be a glaring value. Outside of the Chiefs game sporting a 53.5 point over, the Titans and Cardinals game is sitting in second with a 52 point over. Lets not forget that the Cardinals have not been able to defend the tight end position for the past 5 years even though they shown some improvement last year, which could be flukey. If you’re looking for value Firkser is your guy so take advantage of his cheap price in Week 1.
Thanks for reading our NFL DFS Tight Ends article and the content is just getting started. There will be a boatload of content rolling in all week covering each position, covering cash games and tournaments, and we will have articles, videos, and podcasts so lock in with us in whichever way you like to consume your content. Don’t forget to check out our projection models and cheat sheets which will be updated throughout the week. Livestreams will be published each day on our YouTube page and make sure you lock into our Sunday morning livestream to keep up to date with all the last minute news.
