The Cincinnati Bengals are in rough shape. They lost their star quarterback yet again and their once seemingly okay backup was an unmitigated disaster and now they have to go with the Cleveland Browns castoff Joe Flacco. The good news is that Flacco will throw the ball a ton and can blind squirrel his way to plenty of fantasy points (nuts) for his receivers. Consistency will be a problem and the Steelers pass rush will put Flacco in a bind, but he will throw the ball.
The duo of Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins remains one of the best in the league, but Flacco will need some pass catchers to get the ball out quick to and he has loved targeting his tight ends in the past. So, can Noah Fant be a fantasy contributor this week?
Below, we’ll go over Noah Fant’s outlook in fantasy football for Week 7.
Fantasy Football analysis: Bengals, TE, Noah Fant
The Bengals will be without Mike Gesicki, who just went on I.R. and they’ll most likely be without Tanner Hudson, who suffered a concussion and won’t have enough time to be cleared of his brain injury for a Thursday night game. That leaves Fant and Drew Sample as the main tight ends. Sample is used more as a pass blocker than Fant, and I’d expect that to be the dynamic this week.
Andrei Iosivas was a drop machine in Flacco’s first game, so he can’t be too eager to pepper their slot man with targets and Chase Brown saw his fewest targets of the season with Flacco in there. Plus, we just saw Harold Fannin put up a big game on the Steelers, while they’ve given up the third-most fantasy points to tight ends on the year.
It’s tough to feel great about a Bengals tight end, but the targets should be funneled to Fant with Gesicki and Hudson out and I expect the Bengals to trail, pushing Flacco to throw the ball plenty.
