Who Should I Start? Austin Hooper or Luke Musgrave

Saturday, September 20, 2:49 AM

New England Patriots tight end Austin Hooper has seen increased usage within the team's offense, but it's not enough to justify starting him in fantasy football against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 3. Hooper's snap share jumped from 32 percent in Week 1 to 62 percent in Week 2, and his pass-catching volume increased, too. The 30-year-old caught all three of his targets for 38 yards last week, out-producing Hunter Henry despite playing fewer snaps than him. Hooper remains the No. 2 tight end on the depth chart behind Henry, but he's still seeing decent playing time, especially in two-tight end sets. This week, Hooper is facing a mid-range Steelers defense that has allowed the 12th-most fantasy points to tight ends. Hooper ranks as RotoBaller's TE41 this week, and he can be benched in most leagues.

Tuesday, November 4, 6:02 PM

Green Bay Packers tight end Luke Musgrave now has a golden opportunity to produce in unfortunate circumstances surrounding the Packers. With Tucker Kraft's awful knee injury, which ended his season, Musgrave becomes the next man up. While we can't expect all of Kraft's previous production to go to Musgrave, he does have some upside. Remember: Musgrave was drafted 36 picks before Kraft in the 2023 NFL Draft, and in that season, Musgrave was the starter for most of his rookie season until a lacerated kidney caused him to miss several games. What Musgrave does have is route-based upside; he should run most tight end routes for the Packers with only John FitzPatrick and former Titan Josh Whyle on the practice squad manning the position behind Musgrave. The most likely outcome in Musgrave's range of outcomes is that he mixes in with the rest of the targets in Green Bay rather than take charge as a preferred target for quarterback Jordan Love. In the Packers' Week 10 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, Musgrave is just a low-end streamer for fantasy purposes.