You should wait on quarterbacks this year, and it's a common takeaway that many sharp analysts are keen to. But waiting on tight ends could offer similar rewards. An influx of young talent has dramatically changed the landscape. Additionally, former superstars are aging out. We also see many veteran tight ends finding success in their second and third acts. These factors have led to a flattening of the position.
While there are prominent players worth paying up for (George Kittle, Trey McBride, Brock Bowers), there is also gold to be found late. Paying up for the mid-tier tight ends this year feels like a potential trap. In this article, I'll dissect my tight end rankings, breaking them up into tiers and adding thoughts on each. For our consensus rankings, you can find those here.
Let's dive in with the Big Three, although the order I present them in might raise some eyebrows…
The Big Three
The gaps between these three are razor-thin. In a full list of multi-positional rankings, these tight ends rank back-to-back-to-back for me at the top of Round 3. Average Draft Position, however, has these players in inverse order. That means I have drafted a lot of George Kittle, a little bit of Trey McBride, and almost no Brock Bowers.
- TE1 - George Kittle - He was the TE1 last year, is in his prime, and heads into 2025 with less target competition than 2024.
- TE2 - Trey McBride - Only five receivers had a higher target share than McBride last year, who is the focal point of Arizona's passing attack.
- TE3 - Brock Bowers - A new offense and new weapons could make it difficult for Bowers to build off of his incredible rookie campaign.
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Steady Veterans (Dead Zone?)
This tier feels like a placeholder in a set of rankings. The upside is obvious. The list of combined top-three seasons from this group is a mile long. But they all have red flags that make them scary to draft, especially when considering the upside available later.
- TE4 - Mark Andrews - A low-volume Baltimore offense forces Andrews to rely on extreme efficiency to pay off in fantasy, but a 2024 campaign bookended by blunders has caused fantasy managers to forget his dominant stretch.
- TE5 - Travis Kelce - Coming off a down year and entering his age-36 season, the end of Kelce's reign as fantasy's cheat code has come to an end.
- TE6 - T.J. Hockenson - A mid-season return from a 2023 ACL tear led to lackluster production, but more time removed from the injury will hopefully aid in a bounce-back 2025 campaign.
