Tight Ends Start 'Em, Sit 'Em and Fantasy Football Trends for Week 2 (2025)

September 11, 2025

Rob's tight end fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks for Week 2 of the 2025 season. Who should I start at tight end for fantasy football in Week 2 lineups?

The tight end position is a much more difficult one to decipher for fantasy football enthusiasts. That's because so often a touchdown can be the difference between finishing as a top-five tight end for the week and finishing outside the top-15. The difference between TE9 and TE20 can be incredibly small. In fact, the difference between those two this past weekend was just three points! The difference between the TE1 and TE15 was just four points.

The margins are so small, and because of that, sometimes we need to look a little bit deeper to identify which players we can trust and which ones we can't. In this weekly series, which will be posted every Thursday morning, we will track changing tight end trends to help you identify breakouts, sleepers, and busts.

This article will also be posted to Reddit, so if you have a question about a particular tight end or if there's one you want me to look at, be sure to stop in and let me know there.

David Njoku and Harold Fannin Jr., Cleveland Browns

This is the big one that is on everyone's minds. Fannin, a third-round rookie, scored 10.1 half-PPR points in Week 1, while Njoku, the eight-year veteran, scored just 5.2. Njoku finished with six targets, three receptions, and 37 yards. Fannin caught seven of nine targets for 63. He also received one carry, which he took for three yards. If you were to look at nothing but the box score, you might be inclined to drop Njoku and add Fannin.

I would highly discourage you from doing something so rash. For starters, Week 1 brings all sorts of wonky stuff. Just last year, Isaiah Likely scored more than 20 points in Week 1 and then seemingly disappeared. None of this is to say that we shouldn't be excited about Fannin's prospects or being aggressive in adding him to our benches. Notice the verbiage there. I said "benches". Not "lineups".

The big reason for that is simple: playing time. FantasyPoints Date Suite shows that Njoku ran 38 routes to Fannin's 29. Percentage-wise, the difference was stark: 79.2% to 60.4%. When it comes to a tight end's staying power for fantasy football, a route share of 85% or higher is elite, higher than 80% is great, higher than 75% is good, but 70% is really our cut-off point. If any tight end is consistently dipping below 75%, they're likely to need other factors working in their favor.

That could include high passing team volume or high touchdown equity. In Cleveland, the former could hold true as long as Joe Flacco is under center, but we can safely rule out high touchdown equity. Even with one of those factors working in his favor, 60% is too low for Fannin to be a regular fantasy football producer. That doesn't mean he won't be. It just means we'll need that number to increase, or his production will be inconsistent.

Harold Fannin Jr Week 1

- 5 snaps from backfield (10%)
- 24 from tight (47%)
- 17 from slot (33%)
- 4 from out wide (8%)

Browns used 12 personnel on 50% of plays - those snaps are safe. I think he may be used as their de facto WR3 (Tillman/Jeudy only CLE WR to play >30% snaps)

— Michael F. Florio (@MichaelFFlorio) September 10, 2025

There are reasons to believe it could. His 2.17-yard per route run was very encouraging, as was his utilization. Cleveland moved Fannin all over the formation. He was in-line, out wide, in the slot, and even received a carry. The coaching staff clearly had a plan for him, with Fannin posting a 31% target rate and a first-read target rate of 24%. Compare that to Njoku, who was 13% and 8%, respectively. However, in 2024, Njoku's target rate was at 21%. So, what does all this mean?

Njoku can continue to be started. His 79.2% route share is still very healthy, and we should expect the production to follow as long as that utilization sticks. However, with Fannin's emergence, Njoku's ceiling and upside are negatively impacted. Once Flacco was named the starter, Njoku seemingly had top-five upside. After Week 1, Njoku feels more like a low-end TE1.

For Fannin, fantasy managers in need of a tight end, basically anyone who doesn't have Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, and Tyler Warren, should be interested in adding Fannin. There's a caveat here with Fannin, as well. Last year, Njoku's name was floated in the trade rumors. If Fannin continues to develop and Cleveland does trade Njoku, Fannin could become a league-winner in the second half of the season. Right now, he's a grab and stash, but the upside is clear.

Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints

We've been here before, right? We've done this song and dance with former wide receivers, like Johnson. That much is true, but Week 1 feels a bit different. His utilization has never been as good as it was in Week 1. He finished with 11 targets, eight receptions, 76 yards, and 11.6 half-PPR points. The production wasn't fluky, as long as his utilization continues.

Last year, Johnson ran a route on 62% of the team's dropbacks. That number increased to 79.6% in Week 1. He played 64% of the team's snaps last year, but that increased to 99% this past weekend. That is very encouraging. The other component of this is Kellen Moore, the Saints' new head coach.

Juwan Johnson Set to Maintain a Significant Role in Saints' Offense? https://t.co/2tKzruAGCX

— RotoBaller NFL (@RotoBallerNFL) September 10, 2025

Before 2025, Moore's offense has often ranked in the top ten in the number of plays run. All six of Moore's offenses have averaged at least 65 plays per game. Last year, only four offenses hit that mark. In Week 1, the Saints ran 69 plays, which included 46 pass attempts. This isn't just an increase in raw volume, even though that's significant; Moore also tends to pass the ball at higher rates.

There are question marks with the Saints, largely with the quarterback. However, the sheer number of plays, the propensity to pass the ball, and Johnson's increase in route rate make him a very intriguing target in 12-team leagues. Johnson has top-12 upside in this kind of offense with this kind of utilization. The question becomes, do you expect it to stick? That's a fair question!

After all, he's a 29-year-old player who has never played as many snaps or had a route rate as high as he had in Week 1. However, he's also never been coached by Kellen Moore. It's important that when a player does see an expanded role, he does well. If not, we shouldn't expect it to continue. Johnson had a 1.95-yard per route run average, but there's still upside for me. While Johnson scored 11.6 half-PPR points, his expected fantasy point total was 20.0.

Given how strong his role, utilization, and production were in Week 1, fantasy managers who lost George Kittle can (somewhat) confidently add Johnson and immediately slot him in their starting lineups. It seems that every year, there's a random name that was drafted well down the draft board, or not at all, that pops as a top-12 tight end. Last year, it was Jonnu Smith. The year before, Cole Kmet. Could it be Johnson this year?

Is This Finally The Year For Kyle Pitts Sr.?

Look, I know we've gone down this path before. Last year, and the year before, and the year before that. As much as it might pain all of us to go down this path again, his Week 1 was encouraging. He finished with eight targets, seven receptions, and 59 yards. It was a much better performance than we've been accustomed to from him. He scored 9.4 half-PPR points.

More importantly, it looks like the production could continue. Last year, Pitts had a 67.4% route rate. In 2023, it was 72.3%. In Week 1, that number increased to 80.4%. His snap share for the two years before was 64% and 62%. This past weekend, it was at 78%.

Drake London is dealing with a shoulder injury, although he is expected to play. Darnell Mooney is also expected to return to the lineup after missing Week 1. Over the past several years, Pitts has been held back by poor utilization metrics. That wasn't the case this past weekend.

Fantasy managers need to remember, he's still just 25 years old, and had 1,000 yards as a rookie. He's too young to have fallen off the cliff, and he hasn't had a major injury that would have sapped the player he used to be.

Given that we've seen this up-and-down play from Pitts in the past, I'm not to the point where I would encourage him in starting lineups. However, considering his draft capital, his prospect profile, and his rookie season, I'm very open to stashing Pitts and seeing if he can channel the player that he used to be, maybe the player he was always meant to become.

Is Dalton Kincaid Finally Separating From Dawson Knox?

Kincaid scored 12.8 half-PPR points in Week 1, tying as the TE1 in Week 1 with Bowers. He finished with four targets, four receptions, 48 yards, and one touchdown. Knox, on the other hand, had just 3.0 half-PPR points. He had two targets, two catches, and 20 yards. The box score would seem to indicate that maybe we've moved past this awful tight end by committee approach in Buffalo that has seemingly held Kincaid back.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, looking past the box score will shed some significant and alarming concerns. Kincaid had just a 55.8% route share. That was lower than 2024 57.7%) and his 2023, his rookie season (68.3%). It's hard to imagine it being much worse than that, but honestly, when you look at the context of that game, it gets worse!

The Bills were down 17-7 midway through the second quarter, 27-13 three minutes in the third quarter, and 34-19 at the start of the fourth quarter. This is a game that the Bills trailed throughout and by multiple scores for a large part of the game. Josh Allen dropped back to pass on 52 of the team's 76 plays (68.4%). In theory, this was a game that favored Kincaid, and now, that's the way the box score looks, but his utilization and playing time tell us a different story.

Kincaid finished with just an 8.7% target share, and while his target rate was slightly higher, it won't give fantasy managers any comfort at 14.0%. This performance was fool's gold all the way around. First, you had the insanely high number of pass attempts (46). Second, you have the touchdown. Third, you have production without any of the predictive metrics that typically accompany it.

If we see a player with a good game, ideally, we can point to the why. Their playing time was high. They ran a lot of routes. They earned a lot of targets. We're not buying the box score. We're buying everything behind the box score that impacted the box score. However, when you look at Kincaid's underlying metrics, there's nothing to point to that'll give fantasy managers a reason to believe this performance is going to consistently occur.

Despite finishing as the TE1 in Week 1, Kincaid still cannot be trusted by fantasy managers. Let me go as far as to say that I would unquestionably start Pitts ahead of Kincaid moving into Week 2. It was definitely a troubling first game for Kincaid, especially the game script played out in a way that seemed to have aligned with his strengths.

Best Waiver Wire Streamers and Sleepers for Week 2

1. Hunter Henry, New England Patriots

2. Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints

3. Chig Okonkwo, Tennessee Titans 

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