Week 12 TE Waiver Pickups & Adds: Dalton Schultz Worth A Look

If you are digging around for tight ends still you probably feel the same pain as me having to write this list of viable names. Finding consistent production has been tough to find at the tight end position this season If you have Travis Kelce then you are miles ahead of the rest. As most tight ends have needed that touchdown or 60+ yard game to have any sort of relevance on a week-to-week basis. As we head down the final stretch for fantasy football playoffs, you might also want to be looking for some coverage. It seems benches have been expanded this season due to the unnatural fantasy setting we have found ourselves in. Getting some coverage would be wise heading into the final weeks.

Week 12 TE Waiver Wire Pickups

Jordan Reed – San Francisco 49ers

Jordan Reed didn’t see much of a pick up in rostered percentage this week, which makes sense given the 49ers were on bye. Now they will face the Rams, Bills, Washington, and Dallas over the next four weeks. There are some solid matchups in here with the Cowboys, Washington, and Bills all allowing above-average fantasy points to the tight end position this season. Before the bye week, Jordan Reed put up a 5-62 game on six targets and 11.2 fantasy points are certainly solid with the state of the position. He won’t be a monster target share, but Reed is going to hover around 5-7 targets a game which is where a lot of tight ends have sat this season. In the prior two-game stretch where Kittle missed time, Reed had four red zone targets in Weeks 2 and 3. The plus side about tight end right now is that you won’t really need to spend FAAB money to get any of these guys, and you are going to have other waiver wire priorities and still get these names.

Jordan Akins – Houston Texans

Jordan Akins is coming off of his best game of all season where he produced 83 yards on five catches. He also had six targets. Akins had a strong start to the season but then missed some time and has only five targets in the prior two games to the Patriots game. With Randall Cobb and Kenny Stills banged up we could see Akins emerge a bit more now. It is still a timeshare given he played only 31 snaps and 51% of the team snaps, with Pharaoh Brown and Darren Fells getting work, but he led this group in targets. Akins is still the better athletic tight end but Houston hasn’t generally been a team to establish a real main threat. As bad as this team is it helps their offense because Watson and company need to keep the pace if they have any shot at winning games.

Dalton Schultz – Dallas Cowboys

A late touchdown grab put Dalton Schultz on the map in scoring for Week 11 alone but has been a potential waiver wire grab now for a few weeks. Andy Dalton being back sure made that offense look better and of course, a Vikings defense helps out as well. Schultz is now TE13 in scoring this season with a 39-408-3 line. This is in the midst of a lot of Dallas turmoil of the last 4-5 weeks as well. The targets have been there regardless of who is under center. He has 8, 7, and 6 over the last five weeks. He is also tied for the lead in red zone targets with nine. Schultz has an up and down schedule the rest of the way but garbage time will be there to help as well. He gets Washington, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and San Francisco over the next four weeks. Washington and Cincinnati are plus matchups ranking inside the bottom third in fantasy points allowed to tight ends. Baltimore and San Francisco will be favorable game scripts at the least where the volume could carry Schultz in a tougher matchup.

Robert Tonyan – Green Bay Packers

Essentially we are in the boom or bust territory for tight ends and Robert Tonyan had a Week 11 reminder that he can still produce a strong weekly score every now and then. He had a 5-44-1 line on five targets against the Colts in what turned out to be a shootout game. Tonyan has a sneaky good schedule the next few weeks, as he faces the Bears and Eagles. Both of them have allowed the 9th and 10th most fantasy points to tight ends this season. He also faces soft defenses in Detroit, Carolina, and Tennessee for major playoff weeks. At the least, like the others, he is a bench option in case you need a quick fill-in on a moment’s notice.