As football has continued to evolve, the tight end has been one of the positions impacted the most in Fantasy.
In some offenses, tight ends are considered legitimate pass-catching threats with regular red zone targets. In others, they are reduced to having blocking as their primary responsibility and take a backseat to the other skill positions.
There is some expected variability in the production of most tight ends which makes it difficult. With this in mind, here is a breakdown of the top fantasy football strategies surrounding the tight end position that could set your team up for the best possible success.
Drafting a Top Tight End
If you can get a top tight end, it is essentially as if you are creating an additional wide receiver slot within your fantasy football team. Unfortunately, the options for this are slim.
Looking at last year’s production, there were two tight ends in the top 48 players and four within the top 60. These names include Sam LaPorta (42), Evan Engram (48), Travis Kelce (59), and T.J. Hockenson (60).
Heading into this year’s fantasy football season, Travis Kelce (27) and Sam LaPorta (29) are the only tight ends to fall within the top 45 players in terms of ADP. They fall in a tier of their own in the top tight-end category.
Kelce is coming off a down year from his sky-high standards but inked a new two-year extension with the Chiefs this offseason. Last year, the three-time Super Bowl champion tallied 984 receiving yards and five touchdowns. This is the fewest amount of yards Kelce has tallied since 2015.
LaPorta emerged onto the scene as a rookie, tallying 889 yards and ten touchdowns. The Lions star was a key part of one of the more dynamic offenses in the league last year, and will be looking to build off this in his second season.
These two top pass-catchers fall in a category of their own in terms of fantasy football value. Both players should be expected to go off the board in the top three rounds and rightfully so.
The game plan for selecting these players involves adding a hitting on a starting-caliber running back or wide receiver in the middle rounds. If this comes together, you raise the ceiling of your roster in a major way.
Starting-Caliber Tight Ends
If you don’t want to take a big swing on a tight end early on, there’s good news for you. The tight end position is more productive than ever before. In PPR leagues, there were six different tight ends to eclipse 200 total fantasy points last year. This was the most in ten seasons. It was also the first time over this period that more than eight tight ends tallied over 175 total fantasy points.
Looking at the ADP heading into this season, there were ten tight ends drafted within the top 90 overall picks. This includes Trey McBride (48), Mark Andrews (50), Dalton Kincaid (51), George Kittle (63), Kyle Pitts (64), Evan Engram (73), Jake Ferguson (85), and David Njoku (90).
There are individual pros and cons to each of these players. But all can have a place on fantasy football championship teams if the roster is assembled correctly surrounding them.
In all reality, these players can be contributors but won’t be the make-or-break reason for where you finish in your league. Do your research on which individual guys stand out to you. Then, see how to draft board plays out before your selections.
Wait for the Late Tight End
At the end of the day, your chances of winning a fantasy football championship will not come down to the tight end position. There is more positional responsibility on the running back, wide receiver, and quarterback positions. Ensuring you prioritize these for almost the entire draft is a fair approach.
The separation between the top-scorer (LaPorta) and the 20th-scoring tight end (Chigoziem Okonkwo) was just under 125 total fantasy points last year. There were 12 different tight ends to have averaged over ten points per game, and 17 that produced over eight points per game.
In contrast, the separation between the top wide receiver and the 20th wide receiver in fantasy football scoring was just under 195 points over the season. At the running back position, the drop-off was 209.9 points between the 1st and 20th scorers. At quarterback, this number is 210.4.
If your league is eager to draft tight ends, there could be value on the board in the later rounds. Building up your teams at other positions and then taking a late-round tight end could play out in your favor. Here are a few other late-round names that could end up outproducing their ADP.
Hunter Henry (TE 19, 178 ADP)
Hunter Henry has tallied over 400 yards receiving in every active season of his career. He also tallied six touchdowns last year despite playing just 14 games and had nine touchdowns in 2021. Henry has an inconsistent group of wide receivers around him, and in all likelihood will have a rookie quarterback under center for at least some of the season.
Expect Henry to emerge as a bit of a safety blanked throughout the season and for him to be more fantasy-relevant than his draft slot indicates.
Dallas Goedert (TE12, 112 ADP)
In past seasons, Dallas Goedert was in the conversation as one of the top fantasy football tight ends. The 29-year-old is entering his seventh season and has tallied 524 or more receiving yards in every season but his rookie year.
The concern with Goedert is how many other weapons are in the Eagles offense. He also is coming off back-to-back seasons with just three touchdowns. Goedert possesses more talent than his draft label would indicate, but where he falls in the pecking order this season could slow down his production.
Greg Dulcich (TE 30, 240 ADP)
This is more of a longshot, but Greg Dulcich is a name to keep an eye on this season. The 24-year-old is entering his third season with the Broncos but has struggled to stay on the field. Dulcich has battled hamstring injuries and played just 10 games as a rookie and only two last year. In the ten games he played as a rookie, Dulcich tallied 411 yards receiving. While officially listed as second in the Broncos tight end depth chart, first-string Adam Trautman has never had more than 43 targets in his career.
Dulcich is expected to play a bit of a hybrid role in the Sean Payton offense. This produced some extreme success for some past tight ends, most notably Jimmy Graham and the Broncos will need another target to step up following the loss of Jerry Jeudy. This is a big swing but one that could be worth taking a chance in the late rounds.
There are routes to building a successful fantasy football team with any of these tactics. Be open-minded heading into your draft and be prepared to adjust to how the draft is playing out in front of you.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is seanbarnard) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
