Fantasy Football Week 10 Tight End Rankings: Dalton Kincaid is top-tier; T.J. Hockenson expected to play

Before we get to the tight end rankings for Week 10 of the Fantasy Football season, a quick look at the injury landscape for the position as of Sunday morning: The big news here is that T.J. Hockenson (ribs) is expected to play. He was limited throughout the week with the injury, but maintained that he would play all along, and it looks like that’ll be the case. The Vikings play at 1 pm against the Saints, so we’ll know early enough that you should be able to pivot if he is unexpectedly inactive, and I would be looking for Trey McBride (79% rostered), Jonnu Smith (59%), Cade Otton (45%), and maybe even Irv Smith (7%) with the Bengals injury issues.

And now, a mea culpa: I led you down the wrong path with Trey McBride last week. He was a top-10 TE in my rankings, but finished with just three catches for 22 yards, good for a finish somewhere south of the top 10 – he was TE25, if you must know.

To be fair, it wasn’t McBride’s fault. He was held back by some of the worst QB play of the season, as Clayton Tune completed just 11 of 20 passes for 58 yards in his first NFL start; that Tune was sacked on seven of 32 dropbacks by a vicious Browns pass rush certainly didn’t help things. I assumed a level of competence from Tune that clearly wasn’t there. 

But you know what? I’m going right back to McBride as a top-10 option for Week 10. It helps that Tune isn’t expected to start for the Cardinals, with Kyler Murray expected to make his long-awaited return from a torn ACL Sunday against the Falcons. And, while I don’t have super-high hopes for Murray in his first game back, I am more confident that he’ll be able to reach that baseline of competence that Tune fell far short of, and with the state of the Cardinals pass-catchers, that should put McBride in line for a pretty solid role. I’d start him ahead of Kyle Pitts, David Njoku, Taysom Hill, and Jonnu Smith, at least.

But you know who I definitely wouldn’t start McBride ahead of? Bills rookie Dalton Kincaid, who is suddenly looking like the must-start tight end we were hoping he would be. It took some patience (and an injury to Dawson Knox), but Kincaid has now put together three straight games of at least 15.5 PPR points.

And it isn’t just a touchdown-fueled stretch, as Kincaid has just one score in that stretch. He’s emerged as one of Josh Allen’s most trusted targets, with 26 targets over the past three games, catching 23 of them for 221 yards. As you can see, it’s still a lot of short-area looks, and with Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis stretching the field, that may not change; Kincaid is probably the best short-area option they’ve got, and he’s playing a pivotal role in keeping the offense on schedule right now.

Add it all up, and his profile doesn’t look terribly different from Sam LaPorta’s, who has been a must-start option since Week 1. Both are primarily catch-and-run weapons in very good offenses, making them better in PPR, but probably must-start options in every format. Kincaid is up to 90% rostered and was started in 74% of CBS Fantasy leagues last week; that should probably be 100% in Week 10. 

Here are my rankings for Week 10 at the tight end position: 

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