Hunter

Henry

As expected, Henry will play his usual role. He hooked up with Drake Maye for Maye’s lone touchdown last week against the Chargers and should be in DFS consideration this weekend despite playing in a game with the lowest scoring total on the slate.

He was listed with this knee injury ahead of last week’s game as well and it looks like it won’t be a problem for Henry to play against the Texans on Sunday. It would be surprising if he weren’t cleared off the injury report on Friday.

Henry dealt with a knee injury in Week 18 as well before catching 5-of-5 targets for 56 yards. We expect him to be his normal self for the Patriots’ Divisional Round game against the Texans on Sunday. Despite being 31 years old, Henry totaled a career-high 768 receiving yards this season.

All three of Henry’s receptions registered as explosive, 15-plus-yard pass plays. He impressively retained possession of the football on a corner route despite taking a hard hit from Chargers S Tony Jefferson on the Patriots’ sixth drive. He hauled in a critical 19-yard pass on 3rd-and-13, from the Patriots’ 12-yard line on the seventh drive, and scored the Patriots’ only touchdown of the day by beating Chargers S Derwin James for a 28-yard touchdown on the eighth drive, leaving James in the dust, going through his cuts on a corner route. The Patriots face the winner of the Texans-Steelers game tomorrow night.

Henry’s 56 yards receiving were his most in four weeks even as Drake Maye attempted only 18 passes. The Pats’ No. 2 weapon behind Stefon Diggs, Henry is going to move the chains at important points during the postseason, but he’s not going to be a league-winner type in playoff best ball and DFS tournaments. The No. 2 seed Pats host seventh-seed Los Angeles for the Wild Card Round.

He missed practice on Wednesday, but Henry was limited in each of the final two sessions of the week. Henry is a low-end TE1 as the Patriots could easily bench players at some point against the Dolphins in Week 18.

The 31-year-old tight end is the TE9 in half-PPR scoring and ranks second on the team with 78 targets. The Patriots currently hold the AFC’s No. 2 playoff seed and are expected to play their starters for as long as necessary, as the Nos. 1-3 seeds are finalized this week. We tentatively expect Henry to suit up, but this is worth checking on.

Henry wasn’t asked to do much in this game with the Pats only throwing 25 passes in total. He made the most of his limited reps with a 13-yard touchdown just before halftime and a 23-yard screen pass from Josh Dobbs on the latter’s first throw of the day. Henry is now up to seven touchdowns on the year. He will sit on the TE1/2 border for Week 18 versus Miami.

Henry got the team on the scoreboard in the second quarter from one yard out, shedding his block on a Drake Maye bootleg for an easy score after his defender committed to keeping Maye from the end zone. His solid red zone role has kept his fantasy value afloat this season, even through a modest aDOT and route participation for the Patriots.

The Bills are pretty good against tight ends, and the Patriots’ offense was moving the ball with ease on the ground, which explains Henry’s low target total. However, when the Patriots did need to throw to take back the lead, Hunter Henry dropped a third-down pass that would have been a first down. Instead, the Patriots were forced to punt with under four minutes left. We’d expect more from him next week against the Ravens, but he’s more of a low-end TE1 with everybody healthy.