Who Should I Start? Jimmy Graham or Irv Smith Jr.

Tuesday, August 29, 11:58 PM

New Orleans Saints veteran tight end Jimmy Graham made the team's final 53-man roster heading into the 2023 regular season. The five-time Pro Bowl looked washed up in his last NFL season in 2021 with the Chicago Bears, when he had a career-low 14 receptions for 167 yards and three touchdowns on 23 targets in 15 games (six starts). The 36-year-old was a long shot to make an NFL comeback with his former team, especially after he had a medical episode on Aug. 19. Against all odds, though, Graham has impressed the coaching staff in recent weeks and caught three passes for 34 yards and a touchdown in the preseason finale last weekend. It's a cool story for Graham with the team he began his career with, but he'll have zero fantasy appeal while buried on the TE depth chart behind Juwan Johnson, Foster Moreau and Taysom Hill.

Friday, September 29, 3:00 PM

Cincinnati Bengals tight end Irv Smith Jr. (hamstring) has been ruled out for the Week 4 contest this Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. Smith was unable to practice all week and will now be inactive for the second straight game. The oft-injured 25-year-old is off to a bad start in his first year in Cincinnati. In the first two games, he caught just five of his nine targets for 27 yards. Now that he's hurt, Smith belongs on the waiver wire in most fantasy leagues for the foreseeable future. The Bengals got all three of Tanner Hudson, Mitchell Wilcox and Drew Sample involved in the Monday night win over the Los Angeles Rams, but none of them are worth streaming at the tight end position in Week 4 with Smith out again.