3 Fantasy Football Tight End Streaming Options for Week 12

It feels unfathomable that we're somehow already at Week 12.

Regardless, I will put on a brave face. It's time to give the people what they want, nay, crave -- tight end streamers. The good ones.

Throughout the season, this column should/will/must be your go-to resource for identifying tight ends to stream when you're in a pinch. Based on monitoring 12-team Yahoo! roster percentages, everyone listed will be rostered in fewer than 60% of Yahoo! leagues.

It was, mercifully, an almost clean slate for tight end injuries. We lost Greg Olsen to injured reserve, but that's about it. While this might not feel impactful on the surface, I'll be watching Monday night to see if one of Jacob Hollister or Will Dissly takes the lead tight end job in one of the league's most prolific passing attacks.

Based on the incredible reputation of this column (surely it's famous by now), Week 11 was below par. Washington only threw for 166 yards with Joe Burrow leaving early in the second half, which hurt Logan Thomas immensely. Robert Tonyan absolutely smashed en route to the TE5 performance on the week. And Irv Smith Jr. somehow didn't get there despite Kirk Cousins throwing for 314 yards. I hope you'll still trust me to bring better results this week.

Incredibly, there are no teams on bye this week. The last two bye weeks of the season are in Week 13, when we'll be without the Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Of course, we'll need to monitor any potential COVID-induced byes or missed games.

It usually takes a good six weeks before positional points allowed data is somewhat reliable. Now that we're there, I'll lean a bit heavier on points allowed to the position in this process where applicable. In the end, though, we're chasing opportunity.

We're not exactly shooting fish in the barrel with tight end streamers, but we'll aim for more successful plays in Week 12. Most important of all, have a happy, healthy, and safe Thanksgiving!

Jordan Akins, TE, Houston Texans

Roster Percentage: 2%

So there is a caveat here that with a fluctuating role, Jordan Akins obviously has a low floor. But, honestly, doesn't every tight end not named Travis Kelce or Darren Waller?

Akins saw a fun spike in usage, recording 5 catches on 6 targets and setting a season high with 83 receiving yards. While it's tough to know if the role sticks, it's notable both Randall Cobb and Kenny Stills left this game, and both happen to run primarily from the slot. On a short week, it's possible Cobb and Stills are out or very limited.

It's also worth pointing out that after playing 40% of the snaps in Week 10, Akins was up to 51% in Week 11, the most among Texans tight ends. His role appears to be growing.

This week's game against Detroit is also one we want to target. It has a strong total of 51.5 points, and the Houston Texans enter as 2.5-point road favorites. The Lions, meanwhile, rank 7th-worst in pressure rate and 9th-worst in quarterback knockdown rate, ensuring Deshaun Watson should enjoy more clean pockets on Thursday.

With a low floor but attached to a good offense in an appealing game environment, Akins profiles as a classic boom-or-bust tight end option this week.

Jordan Reed, TE, San Francisco 49ers

Roster Percentage: 16%

This is all about opportunity. Ahead of the bye, Jordan Reed seemed fully healthy, putting up a tidy 5 catches, 62 yards, and this sweet grab against the New Orleans Saints.

Now two games and the bye week removed from his injury, it figures that Reed is probably as healthy as he will be all season. And when healthy, he's been productive this season. It's an incredibly small sample, but in games in which George Kittle has missed and Reed has played the full game, he has put up stat lines of 7-50-2 and the aforementioned 5-62.

All of this is to say, Reed's roster percentage doesn't match his on-field usage. And while we don't expect the San Francisco 49ers to light it up against the Los Angeles Rams, the Niners will likely need to throw a ton. And the Rams, stingy on the corners and against the run, have been just mediocre against tight ends on the season. Consider Reed a high-end TE2 this week.

Logan Thomas, TE, Washington Football Team

Roster Percentage: 53%

This last spot was admittedly a toss-up between Logan Thomas and Robert Tonyan. Both are in solid spots, but I'm giving Thomas the nod based on game environment.

While the 46.5 total isn't overly high on the Turkey Day game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Football Team, both teams play at an above-average pace. We just saw Kirk Cousins throw for 314 yards against Dallas, and as we saw last week, having Andy Dalton back heightens the chance of this game shooting out. At the very least, it's an important divisional game with a three-point spread, which means it should be back-and-forth.

Let's also not let recency bias get in the way for Thomas. Given the weird game script in which Joe Burrow left, Alex Smith only needed 25 attempts and 166 yards to secure the victory. But Smith threw 87 times (!) for 715 yards (!!) over the previous two weeks, so we know there is potential for more volume here.

Per PlayerProfiler, Thomas is third among tight ends in snap share (92.9%) and is running 54.2% of his routes out of the slot. On the fast track in Jerry World, Thomas is in line for a bounce back.