The tight end position is one of the toughest ones to do rankings for in fantasy football. Outside of a handful of elite options, the targets, catches, and yardage for most of the eligible players tend to be very low. The upside for fantasy tends to be very touchdown dependent. The gap between the high end and the middle tier is wide. The gap between the middle tier and low end is not. This begs the question of whether you should prioritize a stud TE in fantasy football? If you do miss out on one of the elite options in the rankings, does it make sense to go to the middle tier? or is it better to just wait until the end and use your draft capital elsewhere? Check out the fantasy football TE rankings below for the answer.
Fantasy Football TE Rankings-By Benny Ricciardi
Tier 1 Fantasy Football TE Rankings: Travis Kelce
Travis Kelce is in a tier of his own. You can make the argument that he is getting older and could decline and is not worth a first round pick, but no one can make a serious argument about him not being the #1 TE option in fantasy football. You can fade him if you think the price is too rich, but he has the highest ceiling, the safest floor, and has been consistently great. He had 24 more catches than any other TE with 110. He was the only TE over 1,000 yards receiving and he cleared it easy at 1,338. He led the league with 12 regular season touchdowns. The only other TE to get double digits was George Kittle. Kelce had 206.3 fantasy points in standard scoring leagues and the next closest option was Kittle at 142.5. Kelce had more than double the amount of fantasy points all but guys at the position were able to score. He basically led in every statistical category and there is nothing that points to him not doing so again. The gap is even wider in PPR formats as he led the league in targets and catches. Truly just one of the most dominant fantasy performers in all of sports relative to his peers.
Tier 2 Fantasy Football TE Rankings: Mark Andrews, TJ Hockenson
You Should draft Mark Andrews in Fantasy Football
The next two elite level options at the position are Mark Andrew and T.J. Hockenson. Andrews had a subpar year, yet still finished with the fifth most points at the position. He did miss two games or he would have probably finished third overall if you add his average fantasy points per game to his total. That still would have only given him about 130 fantasy points in standard scoring systems. Andrews should get a bump this year as the Ravens are expected to pass more often in their new offensive system. Andrews is firmly in the middle of round three or four. He is a huge step behind Kelce, but the best of the rest of the options.
Tier 3 Fantasy Football TE Rankings: George Kittle, Darren Waller, Kyle Pitts, Dallas Goedert
You should Draft Darren Waller in Fantasy Football
The top 3 options are all going around pick 50 or below. This next tier is made up of the guys being drafted between 60 and 90 overall. Earlier in the summer, Darren Waller was going in the seventh round. He has been slowly climbing and is now ahead of both Kyle Pitts and Dallas Goedert in ADP. That was not the case earlier in the summer, but the news out of Giants camp has been very promising. Waller was one of only a few TE options to average over seven fantasy points per game in standard scoring last year. He played in just eight games, so that is why it was easy to overlook. The Giants wide receiver group is below average and Daniel Jones is not an elite pocket passer. That makes a security blanket like Waller especially interested for the 2023 season.
Tier 4 TE Rankings: Evan Engram, David Njoku, Pat Freiermuth
You Should Draft Evan Engram in Fantasy Football
Evan Engram is currently around ADP 95 in best ball drafts on Underdog. That is a full two rounds behind most of the options in Tier 3. He saw 46 targets over the last six weeks of the season. He caught 36 of them for an average of six per game. He then went for 7/93/1 against the Chargers in that frantic second half comeback win in the wildcard round. He finished the season going 5/31 on six targets in the loss to the Chiefs. He had just 52 targets in the first 13 games, which equates to only 4 per contest before the Jags realized they could use hi more down the stretch. His emergence was part of the massive win streak the Jags were on to turn their season around. Engram enters 2023 on a high note and could surprise people if he puts together an entire season that resembles what he did over the last eight games.
Tier 5 TE Rankings: Dalton Kincaid, Greg Dulcich, Dalton Schultz, Tyler Higbee, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Gerald Everett, Cole Kmet, Sam Laporta,Taysom Hill, Irv Smith
You SHOULD draft Irv Smith in Fantasy Football
Irv Smith has an ADP around the 160 level. That is a 14th round pick. At the end of the season, his medium projection is right in line with all of the other guys on this list. At the high end, he could sneak up into the top 6 at the position and do it for much less draft capital than the guys at the top. Smith is very talented and finds himself on an offense where he is not going to be double teamed with so many other playmakers on the field. He has an elite level quarterback with the Bengals and plays on an offense that has shredded opponents via the pass. I would draft Irv ahead of just about everyone on this list, but with an ADP that is 30 to 40 spots behind the first couple guys on the list you do not have to. That is why I am willing to reach a little into the 12th or 13th rounds to secure his services while others invested higher picks in guys that are probably the same or even worse options than he is.
Honorable Mention: Tyler Conklin, Hayden Hurst, Hunter Henry, Luke Musgrave
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