Daily Fantasy Football Tight End Primer: Week 4

The great thing about daily fantasy football is that so much changes every week, with matchups, salaries and projected ownership all varying -- sometimes significantly -- from main slate to main slate.

At numberFire, we have a plethora of tools to help you as you build your lineups, and something we've added this season is an in-depth look at the four core positions. In this piece, we'll break down the tight end slot on FanDuel's main slate.

Let's take a look at some of the top tight end options this week. We'll reference our FanDuel projections, and betting lines come from our heat map.

Here we go.

High-Priced Stud

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs ($7,600 on FanDuel)

With Zach Ertz playing Thursday and George Kittle on a bye, the elite tier at tight end is a one-man show on the Week 4 main slate. Our models have Kelce projected for 14.8 FanDuel points, 2.2 more than anyone else at the position.

Playing indoors at the Detroit Lions, the Kansas City Chiefs boast a slate-best 30.50-point implied total. While Detroit has allowed just 4.3 FanDuel points per game to tight ends, they did battle with the likes of Charles Clay, Maxx Williams, and Virgil Green in Weeks 1 and 2 before allowing Ertz to go for four grabs and 64 yards last week.

With Patrick Mahomes under center, no matchup is too scary for Kelce, and his 27% air yards share, per airyards.com, paces all tight ends. As a bonus, Kelce is $400 cheaper than he was the past two weeks, and with some quality options emerging elsewhere at tight end -- namely these next two fellas -- to pull away some ownership, Kelce may not be overwhelmingly popular. He's a great guy to build around this week, and with some solid value options at running back, it shouldn't be too hard to pay up for him.

Mid-Range Plays

Evan Engram, New York Giants ($6,800)

It appears that Daniel Jones may be good at football. That's a massive lift to the DFS stock of every Giants pass-game weapon, including Engram's.

In Week 3, Jones' lone start, Engram saw a 22% target share and made six catches for 113 yards and a score -- good for 20.3 FanDuel points. For the season, Engram has seen target totals of eight, eight and 14 through three weeks, and he's accounted for 23% of the looks in the Giants' offense. His 149 yards after the catch are second at the position.

The G-Men carry a solid 25.75-point implied total into their home date with Washington, and our models rank Engram as this slate's TE2, projecting him for 12.6 FanDuel points.

Darren Waller, Oakland Raiders ($6,700)

Waller is getting huge volume, and he's in a money spot this week against the Indianapolis Colts.

The Oakland Raiders' breakout tight end is leading the position in target share (30%) and is second air yards share (26%). He's pacing all tight ends in yards after the catch (150), and even in a tough draw in Week 3 at the Minnesota Vikings, Waller came up with 13 receptions for 134 yards (20.6 FanDuel points) thanks to seeing a massive 41% target share.

Waller has a much softer matchup this week at the Colts. Indy is giving up 13.0 FanDuel points per game to tight ends, the fifth-most at the position, and Austin Hooper just tagged them for 66 yards and two tuddies.

We'll have to see how ownership shakes out, but Waller might wind up being the highest-owned tight end on this slate as he's still under-priced given his elite usage numbers and dope matchup.

Value Dart Throw

Will Dissly, Seattle Seahawks ($5,400)

Over the past two weeks, Dissly has totaled 12 targets, 112 yards, and three scores. Obviously, he's not going to be able to sustain that touchdown pace. But the usage is solid, and he has a mouth-watering matchup this week against the Arizona Cardinals.

Arizona's fast-paced offense and porous defense make them a dream DFS matchup, and the position they've struggled with most is -- you guessed it -- tight end. Arizona is getting pulverized by tight ends to the tune of 25.4 FanDuel points per game. T.J. Hockenson torched them for 131 yards and a score in Week 1. Mark Andrews got to the Cards for eight catches, 112 yards and a tud in Week 2, and Greg Olsen had six receptions for 75 yards and a pair of scores in Week 3.

So, yeah, this is a good spot for Dissly, and this clash has plenty of game-stack appeal (48.0-point total) as the Seattle D has struggled in their own right.

Tournament Plays

Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens ($6,100)

The Baltimore Ravens' passing attack has focused on two guys -- Andrews and Marquise Brown.

Andrews has a 23% target share while Brown is at a 25% mark. No other Ravens have seen more than a 10% share of Lamar Jackson's targets. Andrews has accounted for 20% of the team's air yards, as well. He shouldn't see a ton of ownership this week and could pop against a banged-up Cleveland Browns secondary.

Baltimore holds a 26.00-point implied total, fifth-best on the slate, and we have Andrews projected as the TE4. The number-two option in a passing game that should find success this week, Andrews is worth sprinkling in some tournament lineups.

T.J. Hockenson, Detroit Lions ($5,200)

As usual, the game featuring the Chiefs is going to be a popular game stack, and while most people stacking KC will opt to run it back with Marvin Jones or Kenny Golladay, you could differentiate yourself by using Hockenson.

Following his 22.1-FanDuel-point explosion in Week 1, Hockenson has posted FanDuel outputs of 1.2 and 0.6 in his past two games. That should keep people off him this week.

Kansas City is a great matchup for him, though, as they are allowing the sixth-most FanDuel points per game to tight ends (12.1), and Hockenson has the athletic profile to be a big-play monster.