Fantasy Football Week 14 Tight End Rankings: Why you shouldn't give up on Pat Freiermuth just yet

USATSI

Trey McBride has been a huge boon for anyone who needed a tight end, and the Pat Freiermuth experience in Week 13 showed just how lucky we are to have McBride.

Like McBride, Freiermuth is a recent second-round pick who broke out with a massive performance mid-season; in Freiermuth's case, his nine-catch, 120-yard performance in Week 12 against the Bengals. However, while McBride has established himself as maybe the second-best tight end in Fantasy since his breakout, Freiermuth looks a lot shakier heading into Week 14, coming off a three-catch, 29-yard showing against the Cardinals last week.

However, Freiermuth will almost certainly outscore McBride in Week 14, at least, what with McBride's Cardinals on bye. And, I think it's also worth pointing out that McBride's experience gives us reason to not totally write off Freiermuth's breakout chances, despite his poor showing in Week 13.

Like Freiermuth, McBride flopped in his first chance to follow up his breakout, too. You've probably forgotten about it by now, but McBride had just three catches for 22 yards in Week 9, the follow up to his 25.5-point showing in Week 8. Now, McBride had some extenuating circumstances there, as the Cardinals were starting Clayton Tune at QB for that one and threw the ball just 20 times; that situation got a lot better with Kyler Murray coming off the PUP list the following week.

The thing to keep in mind, however, is that Freiermuth also has some extenuating circumstances for his Week 13 performance. The Steelers were forced to go to their backup QB, Mitchell Trubisky, too, because Kenny Pickett suffered an ankle injury that ultimately required surgery. Now, the difference here is that Trubisky seems likely to remain the starter for the Steelers moving forward, whereas the Cardinals were about to get a significant upgrade. However, Sunday's game in Pittsburgh also featured two delays due to inclement weather and saw the Steelers attempt just 27 passes for 187 yards, so it certainly wasn't the ideal situation for Freiermuth.

My expectations for Freiermuth aren't sky-high for Week 14, but I'm probably not dropping him in the leagues where I added him last week. He's got a short turnaround in Week 14 against a tough Patriots defense Thursday, and Trubisky isn't a great QB, so I don't think he's going to be an elite Fantasy option. But he figures to continue to play a big role for the Steelers as a top-three option in the offense, and I'd still start him over the streaming likes of Brevin Jordan, Tyler Conklin, or Hunter Henry.

Freiermuth probably won't follow in McBride's footsteps, but let's not write him off entirely after one bad game. That would have been a mistake with McBride, too.

Here are my rankings for Week 14 at the tight end position: