O.J. Howard Thread

[FantasyFreak]

I traded him everywhere this off season, I am not at all surprised. Zero targets is obviously an outlier, but people saw him hitting Kittle, Kelce level, and I never did. I would also not be at all surprised if he gets hurt again.

[qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyuj]

Gotta hold... But I think that 4-6 tier (Engram and Henry includes) is just drifting further away from the top 3... I wouldn't blame someone for ranking Hock 4th in dynasty

I would definitely agree with Howard and Henry being downgraded (and also with the Hock statement 100%), but I don't think you can drop Engram lower than before after the first game he had. He will be fed targets just as most people predicted, for as long as the Giants don't have anything else going on than him and Barkley. Which could realistically be quite some time.

So at least for fantasy purposes I'd say right now it's something like this:

Tier 0.5:
Kelce
Kittle

Tier 1:
Ertz
Hock (this may be early, but he has done nothing but stand out in almost everything he has done, from College tape to the combine to training camp to the very limited preseason to his first game. Guy is legit.)
Engram

Tier 2:
Howard (and as an owner I am VERY concerned that the Bruce Arians' TE doubters are being proven correct)
Njoku
Henry (though who knows at this point)

...
...
...
About 10 other tight ends per personal preference. Waller, Herndon, Hooper, take your pick.

[FantasyFreak]

Gotta hold... But I think that 4-6 tier (Engram and Henry includes) is just drifting further away from the top 3... I wouldn't blame someone for ranking Hock 4th in dynasty

I would definitely agree with Howard and Henry being downgraded (and also with the Hock statement 100%), but I don't think you can drop Engram lower than before after the first game he had. He will be fed targets just as most people predicted, for as long as the Giants don't have anything else going on than him and Barkley. Which could realistically be quite some time.

So at least for fantasy purposes I'd say right now it's something like this:

Tier 0.5:
Kelce
Kittle

Tier 1:
Ertz
Hock (this may be early, but he has done nothing but stand out in almost everything he has done, from College tape to the combine to training camp to the very limited preseason to his first game. Guy is legit.)
Engram

Tier 2:
Howard (and as an owner I am VERY concerned that the Bruce Arians' TE doubters are being proven correct)
Njoku
Henry (though who knows at this point)

...
...
...
About 10 other tight ends per personal preference. Waller, Herndon, Hooper, take your pick.

Call me crazy, but I'd rather have Goedert, and Hooper at their price point. Hooper will never be Kittle, but he can have 70 catches a year, pretty consistently IMO. Goedert is a better player than OJH, IMO. OJ did very little in college, and has been a big play guy in the NFL, while consistently getting hurt. The 3rd year is not at all encouraging, and I believed that once he got priced on the border of Kelce, Kittle and Ertz, it was cash out time. One more injury or a mediocre season and the allure would be over. He could still turn it around, not gloating, but that was my thought process.

[Blueboy]

Thank god I only have him on rebuilding rosters. I'm willing to hold until either Arians is forced to change his tune, or a new coaching staff gets brought in post-Jameis.

[Straycatz2]

Really think it's all Arians doing. Never used TE and thinks of them as blockers. He did the same thing on the Cardinals.

[FantasyFreak]

Really think it's all Arians doing. Never used TE and thinks of them as blockers. He did the same thing on the Cardinals.

IDK. OJ was an inconsistent big play guy in college, too, in terms of the passing game. Seems to be who he is, until he proves otherwise.

[Cameron Giles]

Panic when there's a larger sample size. He's a buy if you can find antsy owners. His talent and skill is too high to quit so easily

[ericanadian]

Maybe people will have more respect for Heath Miller now... Arians consistently uses his TEs as blockers because he wants his QBs to hold on to the ball and allow the deep ball to develop. A lot of people were sure Howard would get work deep, but the reality is that they have receivers to go deep (though not sure how much more rope they can give to Perriman), and Howard is more valuable as a blocker in that offense. It won’t be this bad all year. Some games, the opponent is going to get a good rush and it will free up Howard to run some routes, but it will be tough sledding most of the year.

[Jigga94]

I don't know much about Brate, is he better at receiving than blocking? Is OJH better at both but being tasked with the blocking?

[moishetreats]

For the moment, I'm willing to chalk it up to Arians wanting to protect Winston more after Week 1 and help get the running game going. Howard is a fantastic athlete and pass-catcher, but he's also a fantastic run and pass blocker. Indeed, if we think back to his initial draft, he was so high on boards because his blocking insured that he wouldn't come off the field. That's an asset, one that Arians has been using.

That being said, there is cause for concern that this is more of a trend with Arians than a blip. We'll have to wait over the next few weeks to see if Arians tries to use Howard's receiving skill set or leaves that for Brate, a far less reliable blocker.

[joeya2001]

I traded him away in the off season for Amari Cooper, cashed in on the hype!

[qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyuj]

I traded him away in the off season for Amari Cooper, cashed in on the hype!

Unless that is a 2 ppr premium TE league or something similar that seems completely ridiculous to me, hype or no. I've never heard of him being valued even close to that.

[sloth8u]

For the moment, I'm willing to chalk it up to Arians wanting to protect Winston more after Week 1 and help get the running game going. Howard is a fantastic athlete and pass-catcher, but he's also a fantastic run and pass blocker. Indeed, if we think back to his initial draft, he was so high on boards because his blocking insured that he wouldn't come off the field. That's an asset, one that Arians has been using.

That being said, there is cause for concern that this is more of a trend with Arians than a blip. We'll have to wait over the next few weeks to see if Arians tries to use Howard's receiving skill set or leaves that for Brate, a far less reliable blocker.

I own howard on a few teama via draft (not overly invested). Im pretty much on the same page. I expect him to be a td guy tbh.

We know arians wants to air it out.... I expect to see some usage inside the 30.

0 targets is concerning....but no reason to part ways here.

[BigBawseRoss]

Gotta hold... But I think that 4-6 tier (Engram and Henry includes) is just drifting further away from the top 3... I wouldn't blame someone for ranking Hock 4th in dynasty

I always had OJ at the bottom of the group of 4 (Henry, Njoku, Engram, OJ) behind the big 3, but ya I have Hockenson at least 4th now for sure. Hockenson might be my TE1 in dynasty by next year.

omg hock is just the best!!!!! love everything he does each and every week!!!

[Jigga94]

Gotta hold... But I think that 4-6 tier (Engram and Henry includes) is just drifting further away from the top 3... I wouldn't blame someone for ranking Hock 4th in dynasty

I always had OJ at the bottom of the group of 4 (Henry, Njoku, Engram, OJ) behind the big 3, but ya I have Hockenson at least 4th now for sure. Hockenson might be my TE1 in dynasty by next year.

omg hock is just the best!!!!! love everything he does each and every week!!!

Some solid input right there