Who Should I Start? George Kittle or Jalen Coker

Sunday, January 5, 11:54 PM

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (ankle, hamstring) was outproduced by his backup Eric Saubert during the team's 47-24 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona. Kittle caught two of three targets for 27 yards. The affable team captain was questionable and ultimately activated but had his snap count reduced in the meaningless game. Most likely, the 49ers organization was showing appreciation to Kittle by giving him the start since he has a $500,000 per-game roster bonus in his contract. Kittle finishes an excellent season as the overall half-PPR TE2, behind only Las Vegas Raiders rookie Brock Bowers and just ahead of Arizona's Trey McBride. He amassed 78 receptions, 1,106 yards, and eight touchdowns in 2024. He was hyper-efficient this year, setting career marks in catch percentage and yards per target. Kittle will enter his age-32 season in 2025 once again as a fantasy TE1 with San Francisco.

Saturday, January 4, 12:39 PM

Carolina Panthers rookie wide receiver Jalen Coker has mainly been a stash candidate in dynasty/keeper fantasy leagues in his first season in the NFL. He heads into the Week 18 regular-season finale on Sunday against the division-rival Atlanta Falcons with only 25 catches for 416 yards and two touchdowns on 39 targets over 10 games played. That has been good enough to make him the WR74 in average half-PPR points per game (6.6), so it's safe to say he wasn't rostered in most standard-sized fantasy leagues in 2024. However, the 23-year-old could make some noise as a WR4/flex sleeper in the final game of the regular season this weekend against a Falcons defense that has allowed the sixth-most half-PPR points per game to opposing wideouts this year. Although the undrafted rookie had only 35 yards in last weeks loss to the Bucs, he finished second on the team in receiving behind veteran Adam Thielen.