Keep Trade Cut: Tight Ends – Dynasty Football (Week 17)

Welcome to this Week 17 edition of Dynasty Keep Trade Cut at Faceoff Sports Network. In this series, we look at three similarly ranked players for dynasty fantasy football purposes. This week, we’ll take a final look at FantasyCalc and discuss three players currently valued as top 12 tight ends in dynasty football leagues.

In dynasty fantasy football, a player’s week-to-week viability factors into their value across the season and for the future. That can lead to volatile valuations from managers and trades involving the assets trending up and down. Weekly during the 2023 NFL season, we’ve looked at a set of dynasty rankings with players valued back to back to back. From those rankings, we discuss the three similar players and whether each should be considered worth keeping, trading, or “cutting”. No, you won’t actually be cutting these players in most dynasty leagues at this time. Especially now that the beginning of the offseason is upon us. However, the point of this exercise is to examine a position group during the week and decide which of the three players will retain their value headed into next year.

Keep Trade Cut

For this exercise, the keeper is a player who can sustain their value or output heading into next season. In other words, the player who should be valued most by managers or potential managers. The player worth trading is a player who may be buoyed by unsustainable value. That, or they are holding a level of value who may be more useful to move along from your team’s makeup. Lastly, the “cut” in this scenario is a player who is trending down or has a rapidly changing outlook, therefore being seen as the least valuable player of the trio.

In Week 17, we take a final look at FantasyCalc.com and discuss their current TE9, TE10, and TE11 in dynasty fantasy football.

Keep TE9 David Njoku (Cleveland Browns)

Our keep of the week is a player whose production has exploded in fantasy football the last few weeks, Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku. Njoku is having a career year statistically, having career highs in catches (81), yards (882), and touchdowns (6). Njoku has been heavily targeted this season with 123 overall. Additionally, he’s had 20 red zone targets, more than Dallas Goedert and Evan Engram combined on the season (17). Njoku has been a clear favorite in the passing game and he’s seen his fantasy output expand with Joe Flacco under center.

Furthermore, Njoku has been a tight end breakout candidate for the last few years. Now, the Browns passing offense has finally given him the opportunity for consistency. Njoku is a top-two option in the passing offense alongside Amari Cooper. It’ll be interesting to see how this offense operates when Nick Chubb and Deshaun Watson return in 2024.

Njoku’s receiving role should be secure as he’s currently under contract through the 2025 season. Not to mention, he has certainly proven his ability as a top tight end. With Chubb and Cooper’s advanced ages, Njoku should find himself a top target in Cleveland and for fantasy managers in need of a consistent tight end talent over the next half-decade.

Trade TE10 Evan Engram (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Our trade of the week is another tight end having a career year, in the form of Jacksonville Jaguars Evan Engram. Similar to Njoku, Engram has also seen a career-high in catches (98) and yards (824) in 2023. Needless to say, he is a solid starting option at tight end for fantasy right now, only going under 40 yards four times in 2023.

Since joining the Jaguars, Engram has provided two top-10 fantasy seasons at his position. He’s proven his athletic playmaking with Trevor Lawrence as his quarterback. However, Engram did not score a touchdown in 2023 until Week 13, which has limited his weekly ceiling for fantasy managers. Prior to Week 13, Engram had only reached double-digit point totals in two other games this season for 1/2 PPR scoring.

Furthermore, Engram has been a solid floor option the last two seasons at a position in need of consistent options. As long as Lawrence is healthy, Engram should be good for managers in need of low-end TE1s or good depth. It’s hard to knock a player having a career year following a career year in 2022. The fact is that Engram is going to be 30 this offseason, and while he has reached the top 10 of fantasy tight ends the last two years, he’s done it through his floor and simply staying healthy.

With injuries to players like Dallas Goedert, Mark Andrews, and George Kittle in 2022, a player like Engram may be benefitting from staying healthy. However, not necessarily by putting up matchup-deciding numbers most weeks. With an inflated value here at TE10, which may be his true fantasy value for 2024 leagues. Now may be a good time to get the most out of Engram and trade him before any signs of decline start to show.

Cut TE11 Dallas Goedert (Philadelphia Eagles)

Our cut this week has been banged up in 2023, with Dallas Goedert returning for the Philadelphia Eagles from injury. Goedert is coming off a strong Week 16, going for seven catches and 71 yards against the Giants. Unfortunately, he is enduring another season of missed games and offensive role frustration for fantasy managers. Unlike the two previously listed players, Goedert hasn’t had a single double-digit target game all season. He has had three 9 target games, highlighted by a 117-yard performance in Week 5 against the Rams. That was a week in which he’d also score one of two touchdowns on the season. As expected, that was Goedert’s best game this year. Unfortunately, he’s struggled to get into the top 15 of fantasy output most other weeks, in 1/2 PPR scoring.

Additionally, Goedert has missed multiple games in his last four seasons and has never found himself finishing above a low-end TE1 in full and 1/2 PPR formats. Clearly, Goedert is a talented tight end but struggles to stay healthy and now is a part of an offense that may make changes sooner rather than later. Whether that means investing more in the rushing game in 2024 or seeing his targets further diminish with the development of DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, is yet to be seen. Now may be a good time to get what you can on the market for Goedert, in case he becomes a more questionable asset on the back end of his prime.

Conclusion

As we head into 2024, the top end of the tight end position seems to finally be gaining some youthful stars and sustainability for dynasty purposes. With the emergence of Sam LaPorta and steadiness from Dalton Kincaid and even Jake Ferguson, now may be a good time to pivot from these older options.

With a player like Brock Bowers also coming into the league in 2024, attaching your team to the youngest asset in this trio, Njoku, may just be the cost-efficient move to make for the near future. Right now he’s having an emergence but it’ll be interesting to see how his value develops across the offseason. He may be worth more than we think, even at TE9 prices. Meanwhile, Engram and Goedert have a few more questions about their age and offensive role prevalence.

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