FanDuel Salary Changes: Week 5

Hunter Henry, TE, San Diego Chargers

FanDuel Price: $5,400
Salary Change: Up $900

You’ll notice that every player on this list saw a sharp increase in salary due to a change in their role, and Hunter Henry is no different. With Antonio Gates out the last two weeks with a hamstring injury, Henry has played 98.4 percent of the snaps for the San Diego Chargers while hauling in 9 passes on 12 targets for 137 yards and a touchdown.

This may sound familiar by now, but we should be wary of using Henry in Week 5. He will matchup with the Oakland Raiders this week, and while they were a prime target last season for tight ends, they’ve allowed just one touchdown to the position this season. They’ve also held Dennis Pitta to just 17 yards last week and Coby Fleener to 6 yards in Week 1. Inserting rookies Cory James and Karl Joseph into the starting lineup has solidified this defense tremendously over the middle of the field.

Minimum-priced tight ends (such as Henry last week) whose salary increases $500 or more have hit 10-plus FanDuel points just eight times in 41 games over the last three seasons.

Also, rookie tight ends in general are tough to count on for fantasy production. The most receptions by a rookie tight end in the last five years is 54 (Tim Wright in 2013), and only one tight end in that span has averaged more receptions per game than Henry has as a starter (Jordan Reed with 5.0 per game in 2013). Now is not the time to target Hunter Henry -- let others chase last week’s production.