Week 8 fantasy football start/sit: Start Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson?

He’s had a mostly disappointing season thus far, but is Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson a lock for Week 8 fantasy football lineups?

Outside of a huge game in Week 4 against the Seattle Seahawks (eight receptions for 179 yards and three touchdowns), Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson has had a disappointing season so far. Of his 74.5 fantasy points (full PPR), 39.9 came in that one game. But he is TE3 by points per game in full PPR, and a top-five tight end overall across the board thus far.

It’s a low-sounding bar, but Hockenson has at least 8.8 full PPR points in three of his last four games. Given the tight end landscape, even taking out Week 4, and it’s been hard to definitely bench him in fantasy for most of his managers.

Hockenson is getting solid target shares most weeks, with big weeks at times and a wide range of outcomes every week.

Fantasy Football Week 8: Absolutely start T.J. Hockenson?

The Lions take on the Miami Dolphins in Week 8. The game is in line to be high scoring, with one of the highest over-unders on the week’s slate. But that’s not all that will be working in Hockenson’s favor.

Entering Week 8, the Dolphins are allowing the ninth-most fantasy points to tight ends (11.6 per game, Yahoo!, 0.5-point PPR) and the third-most receptions to the position (47). Either individually or between two guys, tight ends have posted double-digit PPR points against them in six of their seven games. Hockenson will not be notably sharing work with Brock Wright this week.

If the Dolphins get out to an early lead on Sunday, all the better for Hockenson if the Lions are pushed into a negative game script. There’s a five or six target baseline to set expectations from this week for the Lions’ tight end, with the upside to finish as a top-five tight end (maybe even the TE1) for the week.

So to definitively answer the start/sit question, start Hockenson without question in Week 8.