No week for tight end streamers and waiver wire selections has mattered more than this week; we made it to fantasy football championship week. If you’ve made it this far by streaming tight ends or survived the Brenton Strange experience in Week 16, there is another fresh batch of tight ends ready to be picked up in a majority of leagues.

Since (in most leagues) there is only one slate of games left, if a player isn’t going to help you during that week, now is the time to drop them. The tight end position especially has been so volatile that we must consider all variables like recent usage, team totals, opponent performance against tight ends, etc. After Week 16, several things have developed into patterns for the waiver wire tight end options.

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This weekly column helps identify tight ends that are strong streaming options for the week ahead. Whether it’s due to bye weeks, injuries or overall lack of production, these tight ends are often widely available on the waiver wire (all are fewer than 50% rostered in Yahoo! leagues) and have matchups worth exploiting for fantasy football.

Fantasy Football Tight End Streamers & Waiver Wire Pickups

Chig Okonkwo (TE – TEN) @ Jacksonville Jaguars | 6% Rostered

No tight end in football has more targets than Chig Okonkwo’s 21 over the past two weeks. With the shift from Will Levis to Mason Rudolph at quarterback, Okonkwo is benefiting from the tendencies of Rudolph to make short, accurate throws.

Okonkwo was the TE3 in half-PPR scoring heading into Monday Night Football. There is no reason to think he won’t be heavily involved again in Week 17.

Chig Okonkwo:

Week 15: Set career-highs in targets (10) and receptions (8)

Week 16: Sets career-highs in targets (11), receptions (9), receiving yards (81) and fantasy points (19.1)

– Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) December 22, 2024

His next opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars, has been quite poor against the tight end position this season. They just allowed Brock Bowers to catch 11 passes for 99 yards in Week 16 and have allowed the ninth-most fantasy points to the position overall.

With 855 yards and seven touchdowns allowed to the position, the Jaguars are in the bottom 10 in both metrics, while being outside the top 15 in targets allowed to tight ends in 2024.

Even with Tyjae Spears and Tony Pollard around, the Titans have thrown 59% of the time in their last three games, so the opportunity for another massive target game exists.

Juwan Johnson (TE – NO) vs. Las Vegas Raiders | 12% Rostered

NOTE: This article was written before Week’s 16 Monday Night Football matchup, so it will not reflect if some significant event happens to Juwan Johnson or the Saints.

As we all know, the New Orleans Saints have already lost Alvin Kamara, Taysom Hill, Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed for likely the rest of the season. That has opened up tremendous opportunities for their tight ends and backup skill players like Kendre Miller and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

Another beneficiary of all the injuries has been Juwan Johnson, who has 15 targets over his last three games (pre-Monday Night Football). He has two touchdowns and 138 yards over his last four games.

But what might be most appealing regarding Juwan Johnson in the fantasy championship round is his matchup. He gets the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 17. They have allowed the fifth-most tight end fantasy points this season, including the fourth-most receiving yards (942).

The Raiders have allowed the eighth-highest yards per completion to opponents this year (11.1 yards), including just letting Mac Jones throw for 9.9 yards per completion in Week 16.

Noah Fant (TE – SEA) @ Chicago Bears | 18% Rostered

Only the New York Giants have called a higher percentage of passing plays over the last three weeks than the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle has been involved in several shootouts recently and Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet have both had moments of inefficiency along the way. That’s led to Seattle dialing up Geno Smith attempts. All Seattle pass-catchers — including Noah Fant — have benefited. After missing three games with an injury and then seeing just eight total targets in Weeks 13 and 14, Fant’s usage has exploded.

Geno intercepted trying to roll out and hit Noah Fant pic.twitter.com/4ZuY69pB0d

– Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) December 22, 2024

In Weeks 15 and 16, he had seven and six targets, respectively, and recorded a combined six catches for 65 yards in those games. Unfortunately, backup AJ Barner vultured a touchdown that should have gone to Fant in Week 16 and Smith was intercepted targeting Fant on another dropback, but the usage and opportunity are still there.

Fant and the Seattle Seahawks play the Chicago Bears on Thursday Night Football in a must-win game if Seattle wants to keep their playoff hopes alive. Chicago is allowing the 12th-most fantasy points to the tight end position this season, including 43 yards and a touchdown to Sam LaPorta in their last game.