If you’re searching for a fantasy football sleeper tight end, check out these five tight ends who could see increased opportunities in Week 6.
While tight end can be an unpredictable position from week to week in fantasy, it can also be a very important place to grab value. My fantasy football sleeper tight ends have been red hot the last few weeks, as you can see in my results. We’ll look to keep the train rolling by picking some more bargain options at the position from the 20 teams on Sunday’s main DFS slate for Week 6.
As part of your weekly lineup construction, cheap tight ends can be especially helpful in GPP lineups since the cheaper tight ends are under $3,000, which is lower than any running back or wide receiver. Playing a bargain option like that leaves more to spend up in other spots. Hopefully the picks can keep rolling this week with these five fantasy football sleeper plays at tight end in this weekly Saturday post.
These picks can be excellent values for DFS contests and can also serve as sneaky plays in your season-long league since they are in a position to exceed expectations. Earlier this week, I highlighted my top-15 starters at tight end, and in this list, we’ll focus on players mostly outside those 15 players who still bring a high fantasy football ceiling in their Week 6 matchups.
Week 6 Fantasy Football Sleeper TEs (analysis below):
- Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints ($3,300)
- Michael Mayer, Las Vegas Raiders ($3,100)
- Mike Gesicki, Cincinnati Bengals ($3,000)
- Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans ($2,700)
- Hunter Long, Jacksonville Jaguars ($2,500)
Week 5 Results:
- Theo Johnson, New York Giants ($3,400; 21.3 FPTS)
- AJ Barner, Seattle Seahawks ($3,100; 24.3 FPTS)
- Tommy Tremble, Carolina Panthers ($2,900; 1.7 FPTS)
- Mason Taylor, New York Jets ($2,800; 17.7 FPTS)
- Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans ($2,500; 7.4 FPTS)
Whether you’re looking for value plays in your DFS contests like the NFL $2.75M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st] or looking for a last-minute addition from the waiver wire, here are my top five fantasy football sleeper tight ends for Week 6 of the 2025 season:
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints ($3,300)
The Saints offense was focused on Johnson earlier this season, making him a hot pickup from the waiver wire in the first few weeks of the year. He went off for 15.6 and 15.9 fantasy points in the first two weeks of the year and had 11.1 fantasy points in Week 3.
He showed his ceiling in those three games with at least five catches on at least eight targets for at least 49 yards per game. The last two weeks, though, his workload has been down. He had three catches for 28 yards against the Bills and then an even more disappointing two catches for 17 yards last week against the Giants. It was the Saints first win, though.
He was limited in practice for the last two weeks by an ankle issue, but he does not have an injury designation this week after being questionable last week. He seems to be progressing and will be in a great matchup against the Patriots this week.
The Patriots have been the best fantasy matchup in the NFL for tight ends, giving up 6.2 catches for 75 yards per game. In three of their five games, opposing tight ends have racked up at least eight catches.
While Taysom Hill ($3,000) could be mixed in at times, Johnson should remain the primary traditional pass-catching tight end, and that should be enough to give him a high ceiling in this matchup on Sunday.
Michael Mayer, Las Vegas Raiders ($3,100)
The Raiders’ offense is built around getting fantasy star tight end Brock Bowers involved, but Bowers will be out this week for a second straight game with a knee injury. Last week, Bowers’ backup Michael Mayer was also out, due to a concussion, but this week Mayer has returned to practice and has no injury designation.
Mayer stepped up when Bowers left Week 1’s win over the Patriots and finished with four catches for 38 yards. He played behind Bowers the next week, and had two catches for nine yards, before sustaining his concussion in Week 3 and missing Week 4 and Week 5. In Week 5, Ian Thomas ($2,500) was the team’s top tight end, totaling 5.0 fantasy points on three catches for 20 yards.
Mayer should be more productive than that and could be poised for a monster game if he gets a good workload against the Titans. Tennessee hasn’t been awful against tight ends this season, but it has allowed at least five catches to the position in four of its five games this season along with an average of 39.2 yards per game.
Mike Gesicki, Cincinnati Bengals ($3,000)
The Bengals made a huge change to their offense by trading for Joe Flacco ($4,000). Flacco wasn’t very good in his four games for the Browns this season, but he did mesh well with the team’s tight ends, making both David Njoku ($3,500) and Harold Fannin Jr. ($3,400) fantasy options.
Flacco could quickly do the same for veteran tight end Mike Gesicki ($3,000) in Cincinnati. Gesicki got five targets in Week 5, and he has averaged 3.2 targets per game while working with Jake Browning ($4,900). He only had two catches for 15 yards last week, though, as the Bengals’ passing game couldn’t get much going.
While Noah Fant ($3,100) has been slightly more productive this year, he’s playing much fewer snaps than Gesicki, and Gesicki’s veteran presence could quickly make him Flacco’s favorite safety valve.
Since we haven’t seen it, Gesicki is a high-risk option, but he brings good potential at only $3,000, the same salary as the cheapest player at WR or RB.
Gunnar Helm, Tennessee Titans ($2,700)
On the other end of the experience spectrum, Helm is a rookie who is returning to my fantasy football sleeper tight ends for the second straight week.
Helm was the Titans’ fourth-round pick out of Texas, and he had been playing around 40% of snaps each week for Tennessee, well behind starting tight end Chig Okonkwo ($3,300). Last week, though, that shifted with both players on the field for over 60% of snaps. In fact, Helm’s snap share jumped from 40% to 66%, playing two more snaps than Okonkwo. He caught four of his five targets in the Titans’ comeback win, totaling a season-high 34 yards and 7.4 fantasy points.
He’s getting more work and seems to be forming a connection with fellow rookie Cam Ward ($4,600). Since Ward can throw it up in traffic and Helm will go get it, he could continue to be a go-to option for the Titans as they try to keep up with the Raiders in Vegas this week.
Hunter Long, Jacksonville Jaguars ($2,500)
One of the most significant fantasy injuries at tight end this week was on Monday Night to Jaguars emerging playmaker Brenton Strange (quad), who was placed on IR and will miss at least the next four weeks. Strange averaged 4.8 catches per game through the first four weeks of the season, drawing a significant 5.8 targets per contest.
His immediate replacement at the position is Hunter Long, who has played for the Dolphins and Rams before joining the Jaguars on a two-year, $5 million contract as a free agent this offseason.
While he’s mostly known as a run-blocker, Long has already been involved in the passing game. He has seven catches on eight targets for 44 yards and two touchdowns this season, including this score in Week 4:
Long played 60% of snaps and only had one catch last week, so it could take some time for him to grow into a larger role, but if he picks up Strange’s workload, he’ll be a very intriguing play at the minimum salary this week. Since the Strange injury happened on Monday Night Football, Long is a unique fantasy football sleeper opportunity since his salary came out before he was expected to be the starter.
