Fantasy Football Player Notes

It's kind of frustrating playing Gesicki this year, as both Adam Shaheen and Durham Smythe have been thorns in our sides. Those two combined for as many targets (5) as Gesicki last week. On the year, they've combined for five touchdowns, while Gesicki himself has three of them. Gesicki does lead all tight ends with an 11.1-yard average depth of target. Just two other tight ends have an average depth of target over 9.8 yards, so theoretically, his targets should be worth more than the average target to tight ends. The Bengals have faced a tight end target 23.3 percent of the time, which ranks as the fourth-most in the NFL. Those targets have been worthwhile too, as they've allowed a league-high 65.3 yards per game to tight ends. The Bengals are one of four teams in the league who've allowed four 15-plus point performances to tight ends. Even lowering the bar a bit, there have been seven tight ends who've cracked 10.6 PPR points, which is the average number of points it took to finish as a top-12 tight end last year. Even factoring the level of competition they've played, they rank as the eighth-best matchup for tight ends. Gesicki doesn't have the guaranteed targets that most tight ends inside the top-10 do, but he's close. Consider him a low-end TE1 for this week's game who comes with some upside if he gets the end zone targets instead of Shaheen and Smythe.