Tight end rankings for 2021 fantasy football

UPDATE 6/8

Tight ends haven’t changed much over the last few weeks, but Kyle Pitts and Hayden Hurst both get a slight bump with Julio Jones out of Atlanta. How those two will split work is an open question right now. Hopefully we’ll have a better idea once we get into training camp.

Anthony Firkser probably loses a little shine with Jones in town, but he’d likely have see similar targets

The NFL Draft is in the rearview mirror and the bulk of free agency is over. Rankings will evolve with trades and news, but overall, fantasy skill positions are fairly set at this point. That means it’s time to see where we are in the 2021 fantasy football rankings. As we close in on the season, we’ll split this up into standard and PPR, but until then, let’s go with .5 point PPR scoring.

Tight ends remain one of the more annoying fantasy positions in the league. For all the talk of tight ends evolving into offensive weapons now that offenses lean on the passing game, it hasn’t turned into many stud fantasy tight ends. Yes, we have Travis Kelce and George Kittle and now Darren Waller, but the position remains very thin for fantasy. If you don’t get one of those Top 3, you might as well wait to draft a tight end and hope to hit on a couple that allow you to stream the position late.

Yes, I like a lot of tight ends who could end up putting up strong numbers. T.J. Hockenson, Noah Fant, Irv Smith Jr., Tyler Higbee and Blake Jarwin are all guys I’ll want on my fake teams, but you cannot count on them and there is no reason to reach to draft anyone other than the Top 3 studs. This makes those top guys even more valuable and I see no reason not to grab them in the first two rounds.