Fantasy Football Week 8 Tight End Preview: Cameron Brate a solid streamer without O.J. Howard

There have been few players more disappointing in Fantasy Football this season than O.J. Howard. He was drafted as a consensus top-six tight end and has scored zero touchdowns in his first six games of the season. On Friday, we found out he won't play in the Buccaneers' seventh game due to a hamstring injury. Anyone who was still holding out hope for Howard will surely be cutting bait soon. But that doesn't mean you should forget about all Tampa Bay tight ends.

Cameron Brate has actually scored twice in his past three games and will now be in line for an increase in targets without Howard. While neither Brate nor Howard have seen enough volume this season, they have combined for more than five targets per game. If Brate can hit that number, he should be in for a good Fantasy day against a Titans defense that has had some struggles with tight ends. 

Brate has seen five or more targets nine times since the start of 2017 and scored double digit Fantasy points in six of those game. As desperate as well are for any help at all at this position he vaults into the top 12 in PPR rankings with this news and is still widely available to anyone looking for a streamer.  

Week 8 TE Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 8 at this time. Here's what it means:

Delanie Walker TE TEN Tennessee • #82 Age: 40 • Experience: 15 yrs. Jonnu Smith has a great matchup if Walker is out.

O.J. Howard TE LV Las Vegas • #88 Age: 29 • Experience: 7 yrs. Fire up Cameron Brate.

• 19.1% - Target share for Gerald Everett the past month. As bad as the position is, Everett looks like a weekly starter. 
• 12.3 - Average targeted air yards for Hunter Henry. That's tops among tight ends. 
• 10 - Red-zone targets for Zach Ertz and Evan Engram. Those are going to turn into touchdowns eventually. 
• 49 - Snaps for Seth DeValve last week with Geoff Swaim out. Josh Oliver only played 25 and didn't see a target.
• 5 - Targets for Eric Ebron in Week 7, matching his season-high. He was awesome in this game and could start trending back in the right direction. 

Josh Hill TE DET Detroit • #89 Age: 34 • Experience: 9 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs ARI NO -9.5 O/U 48 OPP VS TE 32nd PROJ PTS 5.4 TE RNK 23rd YTD Stats REC 12 TAR 16 REYDS 121 TD 1 FPTS/G 3.9

Jonnu Smith TE MIA Miami • #9 Age: 29 • Experience: 8 yrs. Weekly Breakdown MATCHUP vs TB TEN -2.5 O/U 46.5 OPP VS TE 31st PROJ PTS 3 TE RNK NR YTD Stats REC 9 TAR 11 REYDS 161 TD 0 FPTS/G 3.3

Week 8 Streamer

Jonnu Smith TE MIA Miami • #9 Age: 29 • Experience: 8 yrs. YTD Stats Ownewrship 13% Smith has disappointed us in this spot before, but I won't be able to pass him up against Tampa Bay if Walker is out. The Bucs have given up the second most Fantasy points to opposing tight ends, and Smith is coming off a 64-yard performance in Week 7. He scored double-digit Fantasy points in his final five healthy games without Walker in 2018.

Cameron Brate TE TB Tampa Bay • #84 Age: 33 • Experience: 9 yrs. YTD Stats Ownership 12% Brate has a good matchup and a great opportunity without Howard.

Dallas Goedert TE PHI Philadelphia • #88 Age: 29 • Experience: 7 yrs. Ownership 15% Goedert has at least nine PPR points in three of his past four games and 12 targets in the past two games combined. He's cutting into the target share of Zach Ertz and has been wildly efficient with the targets he's received. It's a terrible matchup, but he has the talent to overcome it.

Josh Hill TE DET Detroit • #89 Age: 34 • Experience: 9 yrs. Ownership 4% Hill scored in Week 7 and now could be looking at a matchup against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 8 if Jared Cook is unable to return. Hill is touchdown-dependent for sure, but the Cardinals have surrendered eight touchdowns in seven games to tight ends.

Top Plays

Hunter Henry TE NE New England • #85 Age: 29 • Experience: 9 yrs. Week 7 Prices FanDuel $6,700 DraftKings $4,900 Henry has 197 receiving yards and two touchdowns in two games since returning from his knee injury. He's having the breakout we envisioned; it just got delayed by a few weeks. The Chargers cannot run the ball, so short targets to Henry have replaced that aspect, but he's also being targeted down the field.

Contrarian Play

Jonnu Smith TE MIA Miami • #9 Age: 29 • Experience: 8 yrs. Week 8 Prices FanDuel $4,900 DraftKings $2,800 None of the good tight ends will likely be low owned, and Smith is my favorite cheap option if Walker is out.

So who should you sit and start in Week 8? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get rankings for every single position, and see which shocking QB comes out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that out-performed experts big time last season.