Two of the top four tight ends in Week 1 PPR scoring came out of part-time roles. Isaiah Likely finished TE1 with eight catches, 78 yards and two touchdowns for 27.8 points. Mike Gesicki finished TE4 with five catches, 78 yards and a touchdown for 18.8. Both will be popular adds this week.
Neither one played a full-time role. Likely was on the field for 34 of the Giants' 69 offensive snaps, 49 percent, splitting the job almost evenly with Theo Johnson at 32. Gesicki played 21 of Cincinnati's 64 snaps, 33 percent, while Drew Sample played 42. At a position where route participation is the whole game, those are part-time numbers.
Touchdowns did the heavy lifting. Of the 46.6 points the two combined for, 18 came from scores, and Gesicki's was a two-yard catch. Compare them to the tight ends whose production came from playing time: Dallas Goedert played 95 percent of Philadelphia's snaps on his way to TE3, and Juwan Johnson played 84 percent in New Orleans for a TE7 finish. Those roles show up every week. Touchdowns do not.
The case for Likely is better than the case for Gesicki, and it deserves a fair hearing. Eight targets on 34 snaps is an extraordinary rate, three of them came inside the red zone, and a coaching staff that sees that could reasonably give him more snaps. If his share climbs toward 70 percent against the Rams on Monday night, he becomes a weekly starter. Gesicki has no such argument: Sample played twice as much, and Ja'Marr Chase is not going to keep drawing four targets.
So add Likely if the price is reasonable. He is a Start on our sheet this week, and his snap share on Monday night is the number to watch. Do not spend real waiver budget on Gesicki. Our sheet has him as a SIT this week at Houston.