Week 1 Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: Where does Isaiah Likely rank with Mark Andrews out?

Chris Towers walks you through his Week 1 TE rankings

By Chris Towers

Sep 10, 2023 at 9:36 am ET • 2 min read

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If you drafted Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews in the early rounds, you surely didn't expect to be scrambling for a replacement on the waiver wire in Week 1, but that's the position we find ourselves in this week. Kelce missed Thursday's game with a knee injury, and now Mark Andrews is not expected to play Sunday against the Texans due to a quadriceps injury, according to reports.

The silver lining with Andrews' injury is, unlike the Chiefs, the Ravens actually do have a viable replacement for Andrews, in the form of second-year guy Isaiah Likely. Likely flashed as a rookie, especially in the three games Andrews mostly missed due to injuries. He scored in both Weeks 8 and 9, when Andrews played 13% of the snaps and then sat out, and then he added eight catches on 13 targets for 103 yards in Week 18, with the Ravens sitting their starters out.

The first two games came with Lamar Jackson at QB, and Likely combined for 12 targets, seven catches, and 101 yards with two touchdowns. This is a different Ravens offense, of course, with new coordinator Todd Monken installing a new offense with more weapons than the Ravens had the last time Likely played without Andrews. However, given what we've seen from Likely, it seems safe to assume he'll continue to play a big role, with a 20% target share a pretty reasonable assumption.

Likely is one of two high-end streamers I have ranked inside my top-10 at the position for Week 1, and unlike Tyler Higbee, Likely is still available in most CBS Fantasy leagues as of Sunday morning. I actually do have Likely ranked ahead of Higbee, though I think Higbee might be the better bet for a 10-point floor in PPR leagues; he's going to get peppered with quick, short targets with Cooper Kupp on IR. But Likely has shown much more big-play potential, and figures to be a key red zone weapon for what should be a better Ravens offense, so there's probably a higher ceiling with Likely.

Higbee figures to have multi-week value, so I would be hard pressed to drop him for Likely. But I think it makes sense to start Likely over Higbee -- and all but five tight ends this week. If you drafted a tight end in the first 70 picks, I'd probably start them ahead of Likely this week. Otherwise, go see if he's available for what could be a big Week 1.

Do you play in a deeper full-point PPR league? Over at Sportsline, Jacob Gibbs has you covered with full-point PPR position-by-position rankings for Week 1.