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Tight ends with the easiest, most difficult strength of schedule for fantasy football playoffs

What TEs have the best and worst schedules for the 2020 fantasy playoffs? We give you some players to deal for in fantasy football.

Mark Andrews #89 of the Baltimore Ravens is upended against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first half at M&T Bank Stadium on October 11, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland. Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Hello fantasy footballers! Today we will look at tight end strength of schedule for the fantasy playoffs. Hopefully these numbers will help us make some trades or pickups that might help us navigate our playoffs.

For this endeavor, we’ll look at Weeks 14, 15, 16. Those are the most prominent weeks for most leagues, but your mileage may vary. We’ll be using Football Outsider’s defensive DVOA and Adjusted Fantasy Points allowed by position to gauge which tight ends should have the easiest and toughest matchups in your quest for a championship.

Below we have a chart with matchups for Week 14-16 based on fantasy points allowed per game to tight ends on the left and pass defense DVOA from Football Outsiders on the right. Both stats have merit in evaluating matchups, but I will highlight a few where the two stats mesh and meet the eye test.

Easy TE playoff schedules

Noah Fant, Denver Broncos

Playoff schedule: @CAR, BUF, @LAC

Trying to find matchup statistics for tight ends is tough and the DVOA numbers verses the fantasy numbers are wildly different, as there just aren’t as many tight end targets and touches to learn from. So for these, I really rather look at the positive matchups versus the negative ones. One of those tight ends with positive matchups on the horizon is Noah Fant. Fant has teased us this season, as he’s getting good looks when healthy and it’s easy to see his upside. And now he might finally be set up for a nice run, as Drew Lock returns this week and Fant is finally healthy.

Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

Playoff schedule: @CLE, JAX, NYG

Andrews has been getting more targets of late and as soon as he and Lamar Jackson get off the Covid-19 list, I expect they’ll get that connection going again. And when you check out their matchups, I expect Andrews is on some championship teams when it’s all over.

Rob Gronkowski, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Playoff schedule: MIN, @ATL, @DET

The Buccaneers have a great fantasy playoff schedule, but a lot of mouths to feed. The good news is that Tom Brady has been looking for Gronkowski often, including in the red zone. It hasn’t been smooth sailing for Brady and the Bucs, but they have shown some great upside and they’ve gotten better as the season has gone along. That sets up for a strong finish.

Tough TE playoff schedules

Darren Waller, Las Vegas Raiders

Playoff schedule: IND, LAC, MIA

As I said earlier, I’m not going to worry too much about good tight ends in tough matchups. The position is weak and if a tight end is getting targets like a Top 10 fantasy tight end, you thank your lucky stars. That goes for Waller, who I would take over the bulk of the tight ends in most matchups. But, I would take Mark Andrews over Waller, which is something that you might be able to pull off.

TE Fantasy Playoff SOS

TEAM 14 15 16 AdjFPA (avg) TEAM 14 15 16 DVOA (avg)
TEAM 14 15 16 AdjFPA (avg) TEAM 14 15 16 DVOA (avg)
DEN 16 30 31 25.7 LAR 31 32 27 30.0
ATL 31 20 21 24.0 BAL 15 30 29 24.7
PIT 30 27 6 21.0 TEN 30 23 19 24.0
JAX 25 14 22 20.3 CLE 9 29 32 23.3
NYG 17 29 14 20.0 GB 23 21 25 23.0
NE 19 10 30 19.7 CHI 24 12 30 22.0
BAL 29 23 7 19.7 ARI 29 20 17 22.0
TB 12 32 13 19.0 WSH 17 27 21 21.7
NO 24 21 12 19.0 DAL 28 17 20 21.7
SF 11 28 17 18.7 TB 12 26 23 20.3
NYJ 8 19 29 18.7 MIA 10 31 18 19.7
SEA 26 11 19 18.7 LAC 26 18 8 17.3
DAL 27 5 24 18.7 DEN 21 14 16 17.0
HOU 22 6 27 18.3 NYJ 27 7 15 16.3
PHI 9 17 28 18.0 PIT 14 28 6 16.0
GB 13 16 25 18.0 CIN 22 1 24 15.7
CHI 18 12 23 17.7 DET 19 25 2 15.3
KC 10 9 32 17.0 SEA 32 4 7 14.3
MIN 20 22 9 17.0 IND 18 24 1 14.3
LAC 32 15 2 16.3 KC 11 5 26 14.0
DET 4 25 20 16.3 NO 20 10 12 14.0
CIN 28 1 18 15.7 PHI 5 13 22 13.3
LV 6 31 10 15.7 BUF 1 8 31 13.3
CLE 14 7 26 15.7 SF 4 22 13 13.0
TEN 23 13 4 13.3 NYG 13 15 9 12.3
MIA 21 3 15 13.0 JAX 25 9 3 12.3
LAR 3 26 8 12.3 HOU 3 6 28 12.3
ARI 7 24 5 12.0 LV 6 16 11 11.0
IND 15 18 1 11.3 NE 7 11 14 10.7
WSH 5 8 16 9.7 CAR 8 19 4 10.3
CAR 2 4 11 5.7 ATL 16 2 10 9.3
BUF 1 2 3 2.0 MIN 2 3 5 3.3