Who Should I Start? Mark Andrews or Jeremy Ruckert

Saturday, July 12, 1:31 PM

There was some speculation this offseason that the Baltimore Ravens might be moving on from tight end Mark Andrews after his disappointing outing in the playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills in the divisional round. However, Andrews is still on the roster and is in the TE mix for the Ravens alongside Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar with training camp right around the corner. All three of Andrews, Likely and Kolar are scheduled to be free agents in 2026, so they should all be highly motivated, writes The Athletic's Jeff Zrebiec. Andrews should continue to have a key role in the offense, but the addition of veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins could mean that targets will be tougher to come by in an offense that remains run-first. The 29-year-old looked done early in 2024 before scoring 11 TDs in a 12-game span. Likely is a problem for sure, but as long as Andrews stays healthy, he should be in play as a midrange TE1 in fantasy.

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.