Tight end can be a tough position to improve in once the fantasy football season starts, so getting it right in the draft is imperative.
Tight end is to fantasy football as the offensive line is to real football.
During a draft, there is no excitement about the vast majority of tight end selections, just like most casual fans aren’t excited when their team takes an offensive lineman.
Then, during the season, reality hits. For NFL teams, an underwhelming offensive line can torpedo an entire team.
In fantasy football, having a hole at tight end is an incredibly frustrating experience. Hours are wasted combing the waiver wire, even though there aren’t any good replacements and Sundays are spent praying that touchdown roulette lands on your mediocre tight end that week.
Getting a tight end worth starting is imperative to both your fantasy team’s success and your mental health.
That doesn’t mean you have to take a tight end early. It just means you have to be right. Our full fantasy rankings provide all the information you need to get a value at the position in your draft and here we’ve highlighted some of those values as well as provided context for the projections.
The Elite TEs
There are two tight ends well above the others in ADP in all formats, per FantasyPros. Not surprisingly, it’s the tight ends who finished first and second in PPR scoring last year.
In PPR scoring, our projections have these two players as the best options. Trey McBride of the Arizona Cardinals built on a good second season and amassed 1,146 yards in his third year in the league. He’s a clear top-two option for Kyler Murray in the passing game and could be No. 1 if Marvin Harrison Jr. doesn’t take a massive step forward.
The big concern about McBride is his lack of touchdowns. He had just two receiving TDs last year and has six total in his three seasons in the NFL. He also had just one in his senior season of college despite having 1,121 yards.
McBride did have four the year before when he was in a lower usage role, but it’s possible he just isn’t going to be a big touchdown threat. TDs tend to regress to the mean, but it’s not guaranteed. Our model has McBride catching 5.8 touchdowns, which would be a significant step forward.
Still, it’s much too early to assume that McBride won’t become a nice red-zone threat. Even if he only gets three touchdowns, he’s likely to be a top tight end on his yardage alone. Last year, McBride, Brock Bowers and George Kittle each had more than 1,100 receiving yards; no other tight end had even 900. McBride has a very high floor for a tight end and a high ceiling if you believe this is the year he starts finding the end zone.
If you want more touchdown upside combined with a high yardage total, Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders is your man. He had five touchdown catches as a rookie and at least six in each of his three years in college.
Like McBride, Bowers is clearly a top receiving option on his team and should benefit from better quarterback play with Geno Smith this year. There has been some concern about his playing time, with new offensive coordinator Chip Kelly taking him off the field for some preseason snaps in favor of blocking tight end Michael Mayer.
If this pushes Bowers down the draft board at all, see it as an opportunity. The Raiders don’t have the firepower to take him off the field frequently. If anything, he’ll be lined up as a receiver sometimes when Mayer comes into the game. Preseason usage can matter in certain instances, but in this one, it’s likely just noise.
In standard leagues, our projections surprisingly don’t have either McBride or Bowers at the top. Sam LaPorta of the Detroit Lions leads the way and, while he’s a much riskier play than either of the top two players at the position, he’s a good target in the middle rounds as a post-hype sleeper.
LaPorta had a very good season in 2023 with 889 yards and 10 touchdowns, but took a step back with 726 yards and seven touchdowns in 2024 after being selected as the top tight end in many leagues. Even with Ben Johnson gone, the Lions offense should be good next year and LaPorta’s been as good as any tight end in the league at finding the end zone.
He doesn’t have the floor of Bowers or McBride, but still has a tantalizing ceiling and is a value at his current ADP of No. 56 overall in standard scoring leagues.
The Sleeper
Four tight ends have had at least 450 receiving yards in each of the past six seasons. Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Mark Andrews … and Dallas Goedert. And that’s with Goedert only playing 15 games twice in that span, and only playing 10 last year.
Obviously, his propensity to miss time isn’t a good thing, but Goedert is the ideal late-round tight end pairing for an upside reach. Take whichever upside swing you want at the position (Kyle Pitts, Isaiah Likely, one of the top two rookies) and then nab Goedert to be a safety blanket with one of your last few picks.
The Eagles tight end can provide average production at tight end when he’s healthy and you’ll have another tight end to play when he misses time. It’s an upside gamble that could pay off.
Goedert is going as the TE16 in PPR right now, but our projections have him as TE9. There aren’t many better values at the position.
The Deep Sleeper
For all the leagues that use tight end premium scoring or start two tight ends and can’t find any recommendations, you’ve been heard!
Darren Waller is a forgotten man in fantasy football right now. That’s mostly because he didn’t play last year.
There are a lot of obvious red flags with Waller. He struggled to stay healthy before retiring and isn’t a top-two receiving option on the Miami Dolphins.
But But it’s not like his role hasn’t been productive before. Jonnu Smith finished as the TE4 last year and caught a ton of passes for the Dolphins.
Waller doesn’t have a lot of competition for tight-end touches on the team, with Julian Hill and Tanner Conner behind him on the depth chart.
The likelihood of Waller breaking out is slim, but the reward is extremely high if he does. He projects as the TE15 and is being drafted as TE22. And there are very few low-end TE2s who offer his upside.
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Fantasy Football TE Rankings 2025: Everything to Know About the Stars and Sleepers at Tight End Opta Analyst.
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