Best available tight ends on the Week 7 waiver wire

Each week fantasy managers tinker with their roster, adding a guy here, dropping a player there, all to try and maximize their team’s output in any given week.

Tight end is one of those positions that can be the difference between winning and losing depending on how your player does any given week. So it’s critical to examine matchups or maybe a hidden gem at the position that you can grab before anybody else does.

These are the tight ends we think you should consider scooping up before Week 7 action kicks off.

Bye weeks: Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers

Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles (65%)

Next up — Las Vegas Raiders

Goedert hasn’t had a great season by any stretch. He’s never been targeted more than five times In any game in 2021, has only accumulated 216 yards and has topped out at playing 74% of offensive snaps in any given game. Still, he’s hit pay dirt twice and there’s a reason to be bullish on his future with the team.

Zach Ertz is gone.

The former TE1 of the Eagles has been shipped off to the Arizona Cardinals, meaning Goedert will have plenty of more chances to shine and presumably a lot more targets.

OJ Howard, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1%)

Next up — Chicago Bears

With Rob Gronkowski still sidelined with a rib injury, the Bucs needed a new red zone threat. While many forget Howard was even on Tampa’s roster this season, he came alive in Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Howard finished the night with six catches on seven targets, both season-high for him, and played a season-high 75% of offensive snaps. He racked up 49 yards and a score on those six catches too, both of which are season-highs as well. So as long as Gronk is out, Howard is a solid choice as he’s clearly earned more targets and playing time heading into this weekend.

Mo Alie-Cox, Indianapolis Colts (8%)

Next up — San Francisco 49ers

All Alie-Cox seems to do is catch touchdowns. He has just 10 catches on the season, but three of them have gone for scores. He got his third this week in a win over the Houston Texans.

He’s also seen his target number increase since the third week of the season. In the first three weeks, he had a total of 6 targets, getting two each week. But since then, he has 12 targets, doubling the number of balls thrown his way in the most recent three weeks. His big body, standing at 6-foot-5 267 lbs, makes him one of the biggest red-zone threats in the league.

Zach Ertz, Arizona Cardinals (44%)

Next up — Houston Texans

We all knew it was only a matter of time before Ertz got dealt out of Philly and now he’s going to be plugged right into one of the most dangerous offenses in the NFL. Sure, he’s going to be competing for targets with DeAndre Hopkins, Rondale Moore and a host of others, but Ertz is still an elite tight end in the NFL.

He also gets a soft opening game, playing against Houston. The Texans allow the second-most fantasy points to tight ends of any defense in the NFL. Through six weeks they’ve given up 36 catches, 405 yards and five scores to opposing tight ends, good for an average of 19 fantasy points to the tight end each week.

Ricky Seals-Jones, Washington Football Team (29%)

Next up — Green Bay Packers

Seals-Jones has stepped up in a big way with Logan Thomas out for an extended period of time. In the two weeks since Thomas’ injury, Seals-Jones has popped off a bit. He’s caught nine catches for 99 yards and a score. His target share has increased dramatically too, getting just five targets all season before Thomas went down, to getting nine in the first week of action as the TE1.

He might not be a long-term addition, but he’ll provide value for a couple of weeks until Thomas gets back.