Should I Pickup And Start Noah Gray With Travis Kelce Out? Fantasy Football Outlook

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce suffered a knee injury in practice on Tuesday. Despite some hope that he could play in Week 1, the Chiefs have declared the superstar tight end out for tonight’s contest.

With the superstar tight end missing the first game of his career because of injury since his rookie season (2013), Noah Gray will step up as Kansas City’s starting tight end against the Detroit Lions.

However, should fantasy players start Gray with Kelce out this week?

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Another Should I Pickup And Start Noah Gray With Travis Kelce Out?

Thankfully, the future Hall of Famer has stayed healthy in his career because the Chiefs don’t have much depth at the tight end position. Gray will start tonight with Blake Bell and Matt Bushman backing him up.

Gray was a fifth-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. The former Duke tight end has only 35 receptions on 44 targets for 335 receiving yards and two touchdowns in 33 career games. He has never had more than 45 receiving yards in any game in his career.

Meanwhile, Bell was a fourth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2015 NFL Draft. Despite spending eight years in the NFL with five different teams, the former Oklahoma star has averaged only 6.4 receiving yards per game in his career. Furthermore, he had only two receptions for 20 yards last season.

With Kelce trending towards not playing tonight, the Chiefs promoted Bushman from the practice squad. The former BYU tight end was an undrafted free agent last season. He had zero receptions last year.

What Other Streaming Tight Ends Should I Pickup Instead?

Instead of adding a Kansas City tight end to replace Kelce, fantasy players should pivot to other options on the waiver wire. The top two targets for Week 1 are Juwan Johnson and Sam LaPorta. Both tight ends are available in over 60% of ESPN leagues.

Johnson was my favorite sleeper tight end during the offseason. He faces the Tennessee Titans this week. Last season, they surrendered 12.3 half-point PPR fantasy points per game to opposing tight ends.

Meanwhile, LaPorta should see plenty of targets in tonight’s game for Detroit. Amon-Ra St. Brown will be Jared Goff’s go-to receiver. However, the rookie tight end has an appealing matchup. Last year, the Chiefs gave up 10.5 fantasy points per game to the tight end position.

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