Tight Ends Start 'Em, Sit 'Em and Fantasy Football Trends for Week 6 (2025)

Rob's tight end fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks for Week 6 of the 2025 season. Who should I start at tight end for fantasy football in Week 6 lineups?

Fantasy managers will get Tucker Kraft and Kyle Pitts Sr. back from their bye, but it sounds like they'll need to wait another week for George Kittle to return. Only the Texans and Vikings are on bye this week, so fantasy managers won't be tasked with dealing with too many bye weeks. Only T.J. Hockenson and Kittle are the primary fantasy tight ends who won't be available this weekend.

Highly drafted players such as Trey McBride and Brock Bowers have underperformed, while late-round tight ends like Jake Ferguson, Dalton Kincaid, and Tyler Warren have been outstanding. With five weeks of data to review, we're starting to get a legitimate sample size to draw some early season conclusions.

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Hello, Mason Taylor!

Taylor has come on hugely the past two weeks. In Weeks 4-5, no tight end has earned more targets than Taylor. His 19 targets are more than Trey McBride and Ferguson.

In fact, Taylor's 14 receptions are more than all but three tight ends have targets. Think about that. That's incredibly impressive. His 26.0% target share is second only to Bowers' 28.6% target share. Bowers only played one game in this two-game sample.

Only five tight ends have played two games in the past two weeks and have a target share of 20.0% or higher. Again, Taylor's target share is at 26.0%. 22 tight ends have at least eight targets in the past two weeks. Taylor ranks fourth in target rate at 27.0%.

Mason Taylor Establishing Himself as a Top Target for the Jets https://t.co/mkHYtnRnSA

— RotoBaller NFL (@RotoBallerNFL) October 7, 2025

The offensive environment in New York is fairly similar to that of the Bears back in 2023. Then, Justin Fields was the starting quarterback for Chicago, and his primary target earners were DJ Moore and tight end Cole Kmet. That is very similar to what we've seen the past two weeks with New York. It's been Garrett Wilson, Taylor, and then everyone else. Back in 2023, Kmet finished as the TE8 with an 8.5 half-PPR PPG average and a 9.7 expected half-PPR PPG.

The past two weeks, Taylor has had an 11.1 half-PPR PPG average and a 14.9 expected half-PPR PPG. There's reason to believe this can continue for Taylor. His 78.7% route share for the past two weeks would be tied for fifth with Warren. His 20.5% air yard share would rank fourth among tight ends, and his 1.89 yards per route run average would rank sixth.

His efficiency, route share, and target-earning potential give him the potential to be a top-12 tight end the rest of the way. The one area that is likely to hold Taylor back will be the lack of touchdowns. The New York offense has struggled to consistently score points. He'll be better in full-PPR formats, but he must be rostered in all 12-team leagues.

Will Theo Johnson and Dallas Goedert Keep Scoring Touchdowns?

Malik Nabers was injured in Week 4, and since that time, Johnson has found the end zone three times on 12 targets. Is that sustainable? Probably not, but is it a complete fluke? Also probably not.

Over the past two weeks, Johnson has had the most red-zone targets and the most end-zone targets among tight ends. That kind of utilization near the end zone is likely to result in touchdowns; however, fantasy managers shouldn't continue to expect him to score on 25% of his targets.

Does that mean we should be discrediting his 13.8 half-PPR PPG the past two weeks? Absolutely not! His expected half-PPR PPG average is 14.6. The Giants have made a real effort to get Johnson involved in their offense the past two weeks. His 26.2% first-read target-share is the sixth highest among tight ends from Weeks 4-5. The team has clearly wanted to get him involved based on these numbers.

The concern is that Johnson has just a 1.04 yards per route run average. He's averaging just 4.17 yards per target, indicating how inefficient he's been. While utilization has been excellent, the question arises as to how long it will last if he doesn't make it worthwhile for the coach to continue doing so. Certainly, the touchdowns have been nice, but we know touchdowns come and go.

Theo Johnson Relying On Touchdowns For Fantasy Value https://t.co/aEyAywhEn7

— RotoBaller NFL (@RotoBallerNFL) October 8, 2025

Through five weeks, Johnson has yet to surpass 100 yards. He doesn't have a single game with more than 35 yards. He's been held to below 20 yards in three out of five games. That means the touchdowns absolutely need to continue for Johnson to maintain any sort of fantasy relevance. Considering the poor state of the Giants offense, it seems foolish to hope for Johnson to continue finding the end zone at such a high rate. For Johnson, we should be selling the touchdown trend, but what about Goedert?

Goedert has played four games this season and has scored four touchdowns. He has 21 targets, giving him a 19% touchdown rate, which is close to four times his career rate before this season. Obviously, we cannot expect that to continue, but is there anything in his utilization that says we might be in store for a career year in touchdowns? To put it simply, the answer is no.

Through five weeks, Goedert is tied for just 17th among tight ends in red-zone targets with three. He also has just one end-zone target. The fact that he has more touchdowns than red-zone targets is not a good indicator of future touchdowns. Goedert owns a 57% share of his team's passing touchdowns, a number that is clearly going to go down. Goedert is an obvious sell-high candidate.

How High is too High for Darren Waller?

In Week 4, Waller's first game of the season, he had a 37% route share. This past weekend, that increased to 65.0%. That's still not high enough for fantasy managers to safely trust him, but we should expect that number to continue rising. At least, that's the hope.

Even in Week 5, Waller's target share was just 13.9% and his target rate was 19.0%. While the box score looks excellent, fantasy managers should at least be a little hesitant about him moving forward. That's not to say he can't or won't be a top-12 tight end the rest of the way, but he's certainly outplayed his usage through his first two games.

While he's averaging 16.3 half-PPR PPG, his expected half-PPR PPG average is almost half that, just 9.0 half-PPR PPG. For the season, 9.0 half-PPR PPG would rank as the TE11. Should fantasy managers be excited about Waller? Yes, to a degree. It's just important to keep expectations in check.

There are 34 tight ends to have 12 targets over the first five weeks. Waller's 14.8% target share would rank 17th. There are just two tight ends averaging more than 10.0 yards per target. Those two tight ends are Kincaid and Kraft. Waller's yard per target is 11.67. This is a number fantasy managers should not expect to stay so high.

Just five tight ends have a yards per route run average above 2.00. Waller's stands at 2.92, which would be the top mark among tight ends. Fantasy managers should target Waller and consider him a weekly start, but if you're able to flip him to someone who thinks he's a top-5 tight end the rest of the season, you should do so.

Tucker Kraft Mirage?

Kraft is an exceptional talent; there's no denying that. However, fantasy managers should give pause to his fantasy ranking through five games. He is currently the TE5 with a 10.7 half-PPR PPG average.

It's worth noting that Kraft has finished outside the top 12 in every week except Week 2. In Week 1, Kraft scored 8.9 half-PPR points and finished as the TE15. He scored 4.4 half-PPR points in Week 3, finishing as the TE26. In Week 4, he scored 8.1 half-PPR points and was the TE16.

Among 34 tight ends with at least 12 targets, Kraft ranks 15th in target share (15.7%) and 16th in target rate (20.0%). His 8.7 expected half-PPR PPG is just 17th for the season.

Fantasy managers should also consider that Jayden Reed is on IR, Christian Watson has not played yet, and rookie Matthew Golden is just starting to get his feet underneath him. He had just four targets in Weeks 1-2, but 10 in Weeks 3-4. As these players return and get more involved in the offense, Kraft could see his target volume decrease.

Outside of his 6-124-1 game in Week 2, Tucker Kraft has per-game averages of:

- 4.3 targets
- 3.6 rec.
- 34 rec. yards

and has been outside of the top 12 fantasy TE in each week but Week 2. pic.twitter.com/p41fNY59O8

— Kevin Tompkins (@ktompkinsii) October 7, 2025

Kraft is averaging 4.8 targets per game. This ranks 19th among tight ends. He has been one of, if not the most efficient, tight ends, which has enabled him to remain a solid fantasy commodity. He was like such last year as well, so this isn't something new. Like Waller, Kraft is viewed as an elite tight end; however, he may be best valued as a back-end TE1 in the 9-12 range.

Week 6 Rankings

1. Jake Ferguson at Panthers

2. Trey McBride at Colts

3. Tyler Warren vs. Cardinals

4. Tucker Kraft vs. Bengals

5. Sam LaPorta at Chiefs

6. Dalton Kincaid at Falcons

7. Hunter Henry at Saints

8. Darren Waller vs. Chargers

9. Travis Kelce vs. Lions

10. Mason Taylor vs. Broncos

11. Dallas Goedert at Giants

12. David Njoku at Steelers

13. Jake Tonges at Buccaneers

14. Kyle Pitts Sr. vs. Bills

15. Zach Ertz vs. Bears

16. Theo Johnson vs. Eagles

17. Michael Mayer vs. Titans

18. Harold Fannin Jr. at Steelers

19. AJ Barner at Jaguars

20. Juwan Johnson vs. Patriots

21. Mark Andrews vs. Rams

22. Evan Engram at Jets

23. Tommy Tremble vs. Cowboys

24. Cade Otton vs. 49ers

25. Hunter Long vs. Seahawks

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