Monday, Nov. 26, 2001

Week 11 observations

Options to consider if you must play a tight end

By Steve Soucie, Contributing writer

I also recognize how painful the situation can be for a team striving to make the playoffs and fundamentally wasting a perfectly good roster spot on a tight end who isn’t likely to score or who scores only because of dumb luck.

I don’t preach what you should do with your lineup. It is your lineup. But one thing I always try to inform fantasy players is that you need to get that TE requirement out of the way as quickly as possible. You don’t want a dead roster spot holding you down in the biggest games of your season during the stretch drive.

If you weren’t paying attention the first time, or are playing in one of those leagues that demand that you play tight ends every week, here are a couple of suggestions for filling out that pesky slot on your lineup card:

Other than the obvious plays at tight end — Kansas City’s Tony Gonzalez and Carolina’s Wesley Walls — most tight ends are spotty. The players listed below are almost all hunch bets, with little to no factual basis to back up their selections here. The players are listed based on my own personal belief in what their teams and quarterbacks like to do in short-yardage situations.

I still think Philadelphia’s Chad Lewis is a sound play. He doesn’t rack up huge yardage totals, but he usually finds a way to get open around the goal line and gives QB Donovan McNabb a viable target.

Another good play is the starting tight end for the New Orleans Saints, the oft-injured Cameron Cleeland or the mostly unknown Boo Williams. Watch the injury report to see who is going to play each week. If you have the player who is, you might want to put him in your lineup.

I also like San Francisco rookie Eric Johnson. Although San Francisco likes to throw the ball to WR Terrell Owens every chance it gets, Johnson has quietly become a very solid red-zone player. I never would have thought such a thing at the beginning of the season, but I’d recommend him.

I also never thought I’d be recommending any member of the Chicago Bears, but I didn’t think the Bears would be 8-2 either. With RB Anthony Thomas inactive this past week and possibly beyond, the Bears might go back to their short passing game and bring an underutilized tight end into the mix, especially inside the 20. This could lead to a score or two for TE Fred Baxter, believe it or not.

That about wraps up my snap judgments on several TE situations in the NFL. If you are still looking for more, try to think outside the box. Look for teams that are having trouble scoring points in the red zone. Those are teams that are having difficulty getting receivers open on a regular basis. This typically opens the door for tight ends and backs to starting getting the ball via the short pass.

In the future, try to get that pesky TE play out of the way as quickly as you can, so you don’t have to worry about it late in the season.

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