The Shuffle Up series continues. Today it's time for the tight ends. This position was a fantasy desert in the first few weeks, but production skyrocketed in Week 8 (ah, the Hallmark holidays) and everything has returned to normal since then.

Rankings for the rest of the season: QBs | RBs | WRs | TEs

I would never want to eliminate the tight end position from fantasy leagues. It's just another opportunity for us to hopefully make better decisions than our opponents.

The salaries are unscientific and are intended to illustrate where I see potential value. Everything so far has been an audition; I organize and file them as if I were creating a new draft. Remember the golden rule: no player gains or loses additional value because you add him to the roster.

The big tickets

• $34 George Kittle

• $30 Travis Kelce

• $28 Brock Bowers

• $26 Trey McBride

The 49ers rank just 28th in red zone percentage (touchdowns per trip), but Kittle is part of the answer. He saw 13 targets in the red zone and caught 12 of them, good for six touchdowns. And Kittle continues to be as dynamic a downfield threat as any tight end, recording a team-best eight catches for 20 yards. He is close to securing a spot in the Hall of Fame when he eventually retires.

It's a shame Bowers doesn't have a plus quarterback to put him at the top of the position. He has accumulated the most YAC among tight ends, but his YPC is still a common 10.2, which is more of a statement about his supporting cast than Bowers as a player. The Raiders just fired their play-caller, but with the limited quarterback talent here, Bowers can't fully spread his wings.

McBride handles the volume just fine, but with just three touchdowns (and none this year) in 41 career games and 33 starts, we have to view him as a top-cap player. Kyler Murray hasn't been consistent this year and the Cardinals are just 26th in success rate above expectations.

Legitimate building blocks

• $23 Cade Otton

• $22 Evan Engram

• $22 David Njoku

• $21Kyle Pitts

• $21 Tucker Kraft

• $16 Sam LaPorta

• $15 Mark Andrews

• $13 Jake Ferguson

• $11 Dalton Kincaid

• $10 Taysom Hill

• $10 TJ Hockenson

The term “league winner” is probably overused in fantasy circles, but we would at least call Otton a league winner.Tipper. He's been TE5, TE1 and TE2 over the last three weeks, coinciding with the injuries to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. He has five targets inside the five-yard line, leading among tight ends. He's had a 24.6% market share over the last two weeks, trailing only Travis Kelce (a whopping 29.4%) over that period. Baker Mayfield struggled to find secondary managers he could trust, so Otton's role won't go away.

Kraft will always have to fight for scoring against a crowded receiver room in Green Bay, but he's doing two exciting things to maintain his fantasy value. First, there's red zone equity, where Kraft already has nine targets, four catches and four touchdowns (only Kittle has more). But the Packers also know how to orchestrate power in space; At Poison, he is fourth in YPC and his YAC per catch is the best among tight ends. Matt LaFleur knows how to put his players in a position to excel.

Hill has absolutely no weekly ceiling, but he's probably the best goalie in New Orleans and this is a team desperate for offensive help after Alvin Kamara. A healthy hill is an interesting deep sleeper in any week.

Some plausible advantages

• $8 Dallas Goedert

• $8 Hunter Henry

• $8 Cole Kmet

• $7 Mike Gesicki

• $6 Zach Ertz

• $6 Pat Freiermuth

• $5 Jonnu Smith

• $5 Dalton Schultz

• $4 Isaiah Probably

• $3. Tyler Conklin

• $3 Theo Johnson

Johnson showed some promise as a rookie and had his best yardage game of the year, but he also left some plays on the table. He has reached the highest position with four declines this year.

Say this for Conklin: The Jets tried to get him involved. He has run 265 routes, making him the leader in this position. But Conklin is neither a downfield mover (just 9.2 YPC) nor a mediocre route runner (5.24 average depth of target). He always worked with limited range, and now that Davante Adams is in town, we can't rely on equality on the goal line either.

He's probably just a stash-and-hope player, someone who could skyrocket if Andrews gets injured but would have no standalone value without him. Acquiring Diontae Johnson expands the Baltimore target tree even further.

Bargain Bin

• $2 Juwan Johnson

• $2 Ja'Tavion Sanders

• $1 Noah Fant

• $1 Colby Parkinson

• $1 Will Dissly

• $1 Chig Okonkwo

This article used data from TruMedia, Fantasy Points and Pro Football Reference.