Who Should I Start? Evan Engram or Jonnu Smith

Tuesday, February 17, 4:41 AM

Denver Broncos tight end Evan Engram had a frustrating 2025 season, failing to live up to preseason expectations. Engram signed with the Broncos after three years in Jacksonville. He had been a top-five fantasy tight end in two of his three years with the Jaguars, and the one exception was his injury-shortened 2024 campaign. Fantasy managers had high hopes for Engram in Denver, where he could have played the "joker" role in Sean Payton's offense. Instead, he was held to just 4.75 targets per contest, and he finished the year with just one touchdown. These subpar stats resulted in Engram ranking as the overall TE29 in PPR leagues, which was the lowest single-season mark of his career (minimum 10 games played). It doesn't seem like this year was a fluke, either. Engram truly just struggled to get on the field, playing fewer than 50% of the offensive snaps in 13 of his 16 contests. Barring a major scheme change this offseason, we can expect a similar pattern for Engram in 2026. He's a risky redraft option in next summer's drafts. Meanwhile, dynasty managers might want to trade Engram while they still can, capitalizing on any name value he has left.

Sunday, January 11, 12:12 PM

Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jonnu Smith (glute) was a full participant in practice on Saturday and was cleared from the final injury report, according to Adam Caplan of Sirius XM NFL Radio. Smith will be active for the Wild-Card matchup against the visiting Houston Texans on Monday night. Even though Darnell Washington (forearm) is done for the year due to injury, Smith is a hard sell for starting fantasy football lineups in playoff formats, especially with receiver DK Metcalf returning from a two-game suspension. The 30-year-old Smith had only one catch on two targets for two yards in the team's Week 18 regular-season finale against the Baltimore Ravens, and he caught only 38 passes during the regular season for 222 yards and two touchdowns. If you are going to use a TE from Pittsburgh this weekend, it should be Pat Freiermuth.