Fantasy football: Practice patience with infuriating tight end position

· New York Post

The start of the 2024 fantasy football season has been a head-scratching nightmare for so many people who play the game.

The abundance of injuries has been massive — particularly among the marquee names such as Christian McCaffrey, A.J. Brown and Cooper Kupp.

But no one is scratching their heads more than those who invested an early pick on one of the top-five tight ends.

They’ve gone from scratching to hair-pulling to downright panic.

Preaching patience to the masses is not an easy task, but it is one that seems necessary at this time.

Those who roster Dalton Kincaid, Sam LaPorta and Mark Andrews are not only standing outside my office right now with pitchforks and torches in-hand, but they are also ready to put these players on their bench for some flavor-of-the-week who did something good at some point during one of the two games they’ve played so far.

No one likes to throw the word “crazy” around, but if the shoe fits …

The top-five scoring tight ends through two weeks is made up of some interesting names.

George Kittle and Brock Bowers are the only two who were considered a top-10 tight end coming into the season.

The rest is a hodge-podge of players who weren’t even drafted in most leagues.

There’s Isaiah Likely, who dominated the targets in Week 1 but was a ghost last week.

Hunter Henry was recommended as a late-round flier, but he’s been absent for two of the first three games.

Mike Gesicki has been serviceable but is about to lose his targets to Tee Higgins, who is coming back from injury. Any of those guys sound appealing?

Further down the list are such greats as Tyler Conklin, Foster Moreau and Chig Okonkwo. Are you ready to start benching the top guys in favor of them?

And for what? Where has their production been?

It’s been about as prevalent as the production of Kincaid, Andrews and LaPorta.

Tight end Dalton Kincaid makes a catch during the Bills’ 34-28 Week 1 win over the Cardinals at Highmark Stadium. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

You’re just mad because you drafted them with unrealistic expectations of double-digit targets and 100-yard games every week.

How is that even realistic?

If you have one of the preseason top-five tight ends on your roster, the recommendation is to play them every week.

By season’s end, all five should be sitting head and shoulders above the rest of the position.

If you think that’s too stubborn an approach, then try out a streamer.

Cade Otton and Greg Dulcich both have favorable matchups this week. So does Zack Ertz.

And all three have a splash of touchdown-upside.

Betting on the NFL?

We get it. No one likes to lose.

But then again, no one cares if you win every regular season game either.

The only thing that matters is winning the championship.

To do that you just need to make the playoffs, not have a perfect record.

And you’re not going to if you start chasing last week’s points from guys who will never duplicate their current success.

Patience at this time is of the utmost importance.

Howard Bender is the head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy football news and advice.