What is a stash at this point of the season? Most fantasy football leagues have their championship in Week 17, so the longest possible view is just one week out. With that in mind, this week’s group of wide receivers and tight ends will all be players whom I can realistically see making a fantasy football championship lineup (or semifinal lineup) without too much changing. Let’s get started!
What is a stash at this point of the season? Most fantasy football leagues have their championship in Week 17, so the longest possible view is just one week out. With that in mind, this week’s group of wide receivers and tight ends will all be players whom I can realistically see making a fantasy football championship lineup (or semifinal lineup) without too much changing. Let’s get started!
Calvin Austin III (WR — PIT): 4.7% Rostered
I featured Austin in last week’s article, finishing with the following take: “There are a lot of ifs between Austin and being a playable fantasy receiver. But if Pickens misses the next two weeks and if Austin sees decent usage in Week 15, he could be a desperation flex in Week 16 against a leaky Baltimore secondary.”
Since then, we have hit on both of those conditions. Pickens was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season heading into Week 15. Then, on Sunday, Austin easily led Steelers receivers with an elite 92% route participation rate. He also tied for the team lead with five targets, good for a 23% target share and a 35% air yards share. Austin caught all five of those targets, although he finished with just 65 yards and no touchdowns.
Now, he gets to face that aforementioned leaky Baltimore secondary, which leads the league with 32.4 points per game given up to opposing receivers (shout out to the FantasyPros Points Allowed tool). If you’re in a tough spot for Week 16, Austin might just be the guy to save your season.
Jalen Coker (WR — CAR): 2.3% Rostered
If you feel good about your Week 16 lineup but want to look ahead to Week 17, Coker is the top sneaky receiver to target. In his first week back from the concussion protocol, the UDFA rookie caught four passes for 110 yards and a touchdown. He is now averaging 10.7 Half-PPR points in five career games with at least a 60% route participation rate.
For the season, Coker leads all Panthers receivers in both yards per route run (2.21) and PFF Receiving Grade (76.3). He has mostly operated from the slot, but on Sunday, he ran exactly 50% of his routes out wide, proving that he can coexist with veteran slot man Adam Thielen. In fact, Coker was second to only Thielen with an 83% route participation rate. That number might have been lower if Xavier Legette had not exited early with a groin injury, but Legette is now week-to-week, leaving Coker locked in as the Panthers’ WR2 for the foreseeable future.
With all that said, I wouldn’t feel great about starting Coker in Week 16. The Cardinals’ defense has quietly been a tough matchup for receivers, allowing the 10th-fewest points to the position. However, in Week 17, the Panthers face the Buccaneers, one of the best matchups for fantasy receivers. If his usage stays solid in Week 16, Coker could be someone to put your faith in for the fantasy championship.
Dyami Brown (WR — WAS): 0.7% Rostered
Noah Brown has served as the Commanders’ WR2 for most of the season, but he is likely done for the year after suffering internal injuries in Week 14. Veteran tight end Zach Ertz was the obvious candidate to step up as Jayden McDaniels’ second target behind Terry McLaurin, but he exited Week 15 early with a concussion.
As a result, Dyami Brown finished as the Commanders’ clear second pass-catcher with a solid 78% route participation rate. The 2021 third-rounder caught all three of his targets for 30 yards. Obviously, that’s not particularly inspiring production. But when we’re looking at stashes rostered in less than 1% of leagues, we will take what we can get.
The Commanders have a matchup with the Falcons, who have been absolutely roasted by opposing receivers all season, in Week 17. Brown will likely serve as their WR2 for that game, which means he could come up huge when it matters most. In super-deep leagues, he’s absolutely worth snagging.
Tucker Kraft (TE — GB): 47.7% Rostered
Kraft is a success story for this article, as I featured him all the way back after Week 1 when he was rostered in less than 5% of leagues. Now, Kraft is the TE6 in Half-PPR scoring for the season, but he is still rostered in less than half of fantasy leagues, making him eligible for this article.
To be fair, although he is the TE6, Kraft is certainly not performing like a truly elite fantasy tight end. His usage has been variable in the Packers’ crowded offense. Just looking at the last two weeks, he went straight from elite usage in Week 14 (a 25% target share on an 83% route participation rate) to mediocre usage on Sunday (a 7% target share on a 57% route participation rate).
Still, Kraft has by far the best profile of any TE rostered in less than 50% of leagues (with perhaps one exception: who is next up on this list). That makes him a great target if you are looking for a backup or streaming TE.
Brenton Strange (TE — JAC): 10.0% Rostered
Strange as it may seem, the second-year TE led all tight ends with a whopping 12 targets in Week 15. He caught 11 for 73 yards, turning in a very solid 12.8 Half-PPR-point outing. Overall, Strange has now averaged 8.6 Half-PPR points in five games without Evan Engram.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if that number trends upward to finish the season. Four of Strange’s games without Engram came early in the season, with both Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis healthy. In those games, he averaged just a 13% target share on a 62% route participation rate. On Sunday, with Kirk and Davis out for the season, he posted a 26% target share on a 78% participation rate.
He won’t see 12 targets every week, but there’s a very real chance that Strange simply finishes the season as a fringe TE1, especially with good matchups against the Raiders and Titans. After all, Stranger things have happened (sorry).
Stone Smartt (TE — LAC): 4.8% Rostered
Right behind Strange in terms of sudden opportunity, we have another tight end whose name I can use to make terrible puns in Stone Smartt. With Will Dissly sidelined by a shoulder injury, Smartt has stepped in as the Chargers’ primary receiving tight end. He posted just a 57% route participation rate on Sunday but did see six targets for a very solid 23% target share, catching five for 50 yards.
Going forward, the Chargers play on Thursday, and Dissly was listed as a DNP in their estimated practice report on Monday. We should get at least one more game of Smartt as their TE1. The college quarterback is a good athlete and is in a great situation. In particularly deep leagues or those with Tight End Premium scoring, leave no Stone unturned and add him (I bet you didn’t think that was the pun I was going to make).
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Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasyPros.com. Find him on Twitter @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.
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