Tight Is Right

An injury-report staple, Heap has battled ankle and thigh maladies all season yet has continued to produce on Sundays, catching between three and five passes a game and a touchdown in five of eight contests. He benefits from a quarterback (Steve McNair) and an offensive philosophy that eschew throwing to wide receivers in the red zone. (Seven of Baltimore's 10 passing TDs have gone to tight ends.)

6 BEN WATSON Patriots

Presumed dead in September, the Patriots' aerial game is alive and thriving. And while quarterback Tom Brady has been spreading his tosses among his Brady bunch--"Whoever gets the ball is usually the guy that's getting open," he says--no one has recently been getting open more frequently than Watson. The third-year man has a team-high 16 receptions for 209 yards in his last three games and is on his way to having the breakthrough season that was expected of him.

7 L.J. SMITH Eagles

The top fantasy tight end through the first three weeks, Smith tailed off in October. His prospects for the stretch remain solid, however. Even though he's battling a back injury, he plays in a system that only occasionally dusts off a running play (the Eagles called 43 pass plays versus 15 runs in a loss to the Jaguars at windy Lincoln Financial two weeks ago.) And when Philly does throw, it's more often a dump-off to Smith or running back Brian Westbrook than a downfield pass.

8 JEREMY SHOCKEY Giants

Like Witten, Shockey has been pressed into pass-blocking duty, but unlike Witten, the New York shock jock has been slower to come around in terms of fantasy production. He has been scoring a bit more (after having one TD in his first four games, he has four in his last four), but he's averaging a career-low 10.1 yards per catch and is on pace to finish with just 612 receiving yards--his worst output since his 535-yard season of 2003, when he played in only nine games. He's still a threat in the red zone, however, and a good spot play against the right opponent.

PLAYER RANKINGS

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