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Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: Who’s Ranked #1?
Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
- When you take Kelce, you’re not taking a TE, you’re taking a WR1.
- If you can pair his drafting well with smart receiver drafting, you are the team to beat in your league.
- 1 of 4 tight ends to have over 100 targets
- Only tight end with over 100 receptions
- Only tight end with over 1,000 receiving yards
- 1 of 2 tight ends to finish with double-digit touchdowns
- Finished with 100 more fantasy points than the TE2 last season (316.3 to 215.4)
![The 2023 Tight End Rankings: Fantasy Football Deep Dive 1 NFL: Denver Broncos at Carolina Panthers](https://www.lafbnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NFL-Denver-Broncos-at-Carolina-Panthers-19514467-788x444.jpg)
Tight End Fantasy Football Sleepers
Greg Dulcich, Denver Broncos
- He’s currently being drafted in the 12th round ADP
- This tracks because when he was healthy, he was the 12th-best tight end in half-PPR leagues
- He was on the field for 80% of their snaps when healthy so competition is not an issue
- He was tied for first on the team in terms of targets
- Six tight ends under Payton’s system have finished in the top ten in the last decade
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints
- Johnson enters his fourth season in the NFL and every season he’s gotten more involved in the offense
- Targets increased from 10, 22, to 65 last season and he was 3rd on the team in targets as well
- He led the team in receiving touchdowns, as well, with 7
- Targets increased from 10, 22, to 65 last season and he was 3rd on the team in targets as well
- Heading into 2023, he should have more stability at the quarterback position with Derek Carr under center
- Another big thing is that there are not a ton of solid receiving options in this offense that can be depended on consistently, outside of Chris Olave
- Michael Thomas has yet to return to form and the more significant thing returned to the field for more than a handful of games
- Alvin Kamara has not been used in the passing game as much as in previous seasons
- Bryan Edwards, Tre’Quan Smith, and Rashid Shaheed are good options but are not going to eat into a significant target share in the offense
- The same goes for rookie A.T. Perry
- Now the Saints did reunite with Jimmy Graham, but he won’t affect this offense the same way he used to in his prime
- Overall, Johnson is one of those tight ends you can take a flier on later in the draft and could turn into a home run pick if he gets heavily involved in the passing game
- Pair him up with a tight end like Dalton Schultz or Cole Kmet and you got good options to stream at the tight end position every week
![The 2023 Tight End Rankings: Fantasy Football Deep Dive 2 NFL: San Francisco 49ers Training Camp](https://www.lafbnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NFL-San-Francisco-49ers-Training-Camp-21096569-788x444.jpg)
Tight End Fantasy Football Busts
Dawson Knox, Buffalo Bills
- Dalton Kincaid’s presence is definitely going to eat into his production
- Add on to this that this offense just doesn’t like tight ends!
- He’s never gone for over 600 yards or had over 50 receptions
- This is what I call Noah Fast syndrome – a player who remains popular based solely on his hype and very few stats to back it up.
George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
- The last four weeks of the season really speak to why people are high on Kittle this coming season
- He scored 7 of his 11 career-high touchdowns in those final four weeks and he averaged 21.6 fantasy points per game
- The bigger thing as to why you should be wary is that through the other 11 games he played in, he scored 4 touchdowns and averaged 10.4 fantasy points per game
- It’s looking like Brock Purdy will be the Week 1 starter, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll be the same guy we saw last season and when Kittle tore it up
- The offense will feature the running game more and also have some other good weapons in Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk in the passing game to contend with
- He’s going to be used as a blocker especially to set up lanes for Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell
- Based on where he’s going in fantasy drafts, it’s a little too overvalued
- He’s being targeted as the 2nd tight end off the board in some rankings
![The 2023 Tight End Rankings: Fantasy Football Deep Dive 3 Syndication: The Record](https://www.lafbnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Syndication-The-Record-21113320-788x444.jpg)
Tight End Fantasy Hot Takes
Darren Waller will finish outside of the top 10
- Waller’s physical ability that he brings to the game is unmatched, but the offense he’s in leaves much to be desired
- Let’s not forget he’s missed 14 games combined across his last two seasons
- Head coach Brian Daboll might decide to let Daniel Jones air it out more, but that will be spread among the players on the offense
- If you look at the tight end position last year for the Giants, they had a grand total of 74 targets between four tight ends (little less than 19 targets per player for the entire season)
- When Evan Engram was part of the offense the past few seasons, he did see a lot of targets, but it’s also because of the injuries to the wide receiver corps
- Waller can bring an athletic element to the offense at tight end, but it’s hard for me to trust him unless there are injuries again to the wide receiver room
- Saquon Barkley also led this team with 76 targets last season
Cole Kmet will lead the Bears in TD receptions
- While DJ Moore is a popular sleeper, Cole Kmet is the man to go in the red zone which could lead to more red zone targets.
- If Justin Fields isn’t looking to run it within the 20, it’ll be Kmet as his go-to
- He had 7 touchdowns last year, leading the team by a mile
- How many touchdowns did DJ Moore have last year? Answer: 7