Who Should I Start? Jeremy Ruckert or Julian Hill

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.

Wednesday, September 17, 6:59 PM

Miami Dolphins tight end Julian Hill has started each of the first two games for his team this season, while Darren Waller (hip) has been out. With Waller out again in Week 3 when the Dolphins face the Bills on Thursday, Hill will likely get plenty of time on the field once again. He played 51% of snaps in Week 1 and 58% in Week 2. However, all that time on the field hasn't led to any targets. His only contribution has been a successful two-point conversion catch in Week 1. Since he's not getting any looks from Tua Tagovailoa, he's a longshot play in Week 3, coming into the week as the TE45, well off the fantasy radar in all formats, except potentially as a DFS Thursday night contest dart throw.