Getty Gallery: 4/6
Start: TE Evan Engram vs. Bucs
Sit: TE Jeff Heuerman at Chargers
Between injuries and a lack of production, Engram has been a disappointment this season. The Giants tight end may not have lived up to his sophomore expectations, but that will not prevent him from taking advantage of a bad Bucs defense. Last week, Engram caught four of his five targets against the Niners for 46 yards. These are not eye-popping numbers, but I do expect his usage to go up this week against Tampa Bay.
The Buccaneers give up the fourth-most passing yards to opponents at 291.9 yards per game. Engram believes Eli Manning is still the quarterback the Giants need him to be to have success.
“Eli has been doing this forever,” Engram told USA Today. “He was on the same beat back there. Everybody else was anxious, ready, hopping around.”
Engram has had a few critical drops in 2018, but Giants head coach Pat Shurmur expects his tight end to bounce back.
“Evan is a pass-catching tight end — that’s just the nature of who he is — and it’s important that we catch the ball consistently,’’ Shurmur told the New York Post. “The one thing I’ll say about Evan is he works at it harder than any of our guys. He’s had a couple drops … but he works at it, and if you believe in hard work changing the outcome of things, I feel good about him not having that be a problem. He’s one of the guys that really works hard at catching the football. He will just continue to do that, put it behind him and move on. That’s really the nature of it. If I had a guy who was dropping balls and didn’t work at it, then the rubber’s going to hit the road on that."
Don't Overreact to Jeff Heuerman's Week 9 Performance
In Jeff Heurman's first game without Demaryius Thomas, Broncos tight end Jeff Heuerman had 10 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown. It understandable if you scooped up Heuerman from your waiver wire, but you should avoid putting him in your lineup for this week.
Based on his prior usage, there is a good chance Week 9 was more of an outlier than a sign of things to come. Rotoworld broke down why Heuerman's performance was so surprising.
"In Denver's first game without Demaryius Thomas, it was unexpectedly Heuerman who led the team across the board in targets, catches, and receiving yards," Rotoworld explains. "He was hogging red zone usage all along, leading the team in targets inside the 10-yard line (7) prior to Sunday, but he was averaging just 3.8 targets on the year. His 11 looks Sunday were a season high. Given the landscape and desecration at his position, Heuerman is a viable season-long flier just in case this amount of volume unexpectedly continues to be thrown his way."
Avoid putting Heuerman into your lineup until he proves he can consistently produce.