Who Should I Start? Darnell Washington or Jeremy Ruckert

Thursday, November 20, 12:26 AM

Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Darnell Washington continues to trend upward, and he'll look to carry his momentum into Sunday's Week 12 contest against the Chicago Bears. Washington played 71 percent of the offensive snaps last week, which was his highest mark since Week 6. He also caught four of his five targets for a season-high 67 yards, delivering the first double-digit scoring total (PPR) of his career. Washington does still have some competition for targets from Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth, but it appears that he has surpassed both of them in the pecking order given his volume and workload over the last few weeks. Washington is right up there with DK Metcalf as Aaron Rodgers' favorite targets, which will give him some low-end TE1 upside in deeper leagues going forward. Perhaps the more important question for this week is whether Washington will be catching passes from Rodgers, who missed Wednesday's practice with a thumb injury, or Mason Rudolph. Either way, he's a top-25 tight end in fantasy football, and he has top-15 upside against a Bears defense allowing the eighth-most receptions to the position in 2025.

Monday, June 9, 12:26 PM

The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt writes that New York Jets tight end Jeremy Ruckert has shown progress as a pass-catcher this offseason. Ruckert was teammates with new quarterback Justin Fields in college at Ohio State, so he's been seeing a heavy workload during organized team activities. Still, Ruckert has plenty to prove coming off three disappointing seasons to start his NFL career, including regressing as a run-blocker last year. "I think he can help us in the passing game, he'll be a really good blocker," had coach Aaron Glenn said. "There's some technical things he can improve on." The 24-year-old former third-rounder (101st overall) in 2022 is still searching for his first NFL touchdown and has caught just 35 of 52 targets for 264 yards in his three seasons. With the Jets taking Mason Taylor in the second round of this year's draft, Ruckert's path to fantasy value is even more of an uphill battle.