For decades, since the early days of fantasy football, the tight end position has been dominated by unique, exceptional talents who dominate the scoring charts for multiple seasons, thwarting all challengers and crushing rebels.
Travis Kelce is the most recent player to rule this spot like a medieval king, but he certainly isn’t the first. Kelce was preceded by Rob Gronkowski, who himself was preceded by Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharpe, Ben Coates, Keith Jackson, Todd Christensen, Kellen Winslow and so on, all the way back to John Mackey and Mike Ditka.
Historically, this is a spot on the roster where the top fantasy scorer often gets a enormous season lead, occasionally doubling the production of all but three or four of their rivals. There are never 10 or 12 truly serviceable tight ends to go around.
If you had Kelce on a roster in 2022—or Gronk in 2011, or Sharpe in 1996, or Christensen in 1983 (unlikely but not impossible)—you already fully understand the benefits of having a tight end from his own tier. The position has a rich history of producing players who can impact the league, and spending an early draft pick on the consensus No. 1 tight end has often proven to be a winning move.
And yet, well… 2024 feels different somehow.
It could simply be the fact that Kelce, entering his 35th season, is nearing the end of his reign. We’re in a state of transition at this point on the roster. Kelce appeared in just 15 games last year and showed his age in several others, but he still ended up with a top-three finish — the eighth straight season he’s done so. Sam LaPorta was actually the highest-scoring fantasy tight end in 2023, and if history is any guide, it’s a fair bet he’ll be the next undisputed alpha TE.
LaPorta is nothowever, the only one who has a chance at that crown.
For the first time in several seasons, tight end doesn’t seem like a minefield in the middle tiers. This spot suddenly seems full of interesting possibilities. You can even realistically wait for tight end — maybe take the 10th or 12th player off the board — and not feel like your team is doomed to start every week with a five or six point deficit.
Increasingly, NFL tight ends are functioning purely as super-sized slot receivers — every player eligible to be a 2024 draftable tight end ran a route on 85-95% of their passing snaps last year. The game itself has evolved to the point where elite fantasy tight ends are nearly indistinguishable in usage from wide receivers. A reasonable argument can be made to simply lump the position in with the wideout, but that’s beyond the scope of today’s discussion.
For now, we have yet to fill this spot in fantasy. Fortunately, it’s never been easier to convince yourself of a mid-draft option.
Breakout TE to target: Dalton Kincaid has a chance to be one of the right answers in fantasy
It’s possible that a Josh Allen-Dalton Kincaid pairing will never be as feasible as it was in 2024. That feels like a potential winning combination. Kincaid is very much in the conversation to end up as fantasy’s TE1. He’s coming off a rookie season in which he caught a whopping 80.2% of his targets and threw for 673 yards. His team context is near ideal, and he has all the traits we’re looking for:
Kincaid is essentially the easy button for Allen in the Bills’ passing attack. He also isn’t tasked with each of traditional tight end responsibilities other than receiving — he blocked just 1.2% of pass snaps last season according to PFF — so we should view him as a position suitability problem.
Let’s also not forget that Buffalo has over 240 free targets after the departures of Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis, so Kincaid has a clear path to triple-digit opportunities. It’s hardly crazy to believe that he has an 80-1000-10 season within his realm of outcomes.
The Sleeping Player Who Can Crush Their ADP: Isaiah Likely
Without a doubt, Isaiah Likely has a pretty serious Mark Andrews problem. We won’t try to convince you otherwise. Over the past six seasons, when Andrews has been fully operational, he’s been one of the best non-Kelce tight ends around. He’s great — a circle-of-trust tight end for a two-time MVP quarterback; no disrespect to Andrews here.
But if you’re going to take a late-draft swing at a tight end, why not get a player who’s already shown he can play in the top five? We don’t need to speculate on whether Likely is capable of elite production, because we’ve seen it. Last season, when Andrews was injured in Baltimore’s final six games, Likely produced 322 receiving yards and five scores. Several of his catches were top-tier, too:
Ideally, the Ravens would find a way to get both of their uncoverable tight ends to see consistent volume, but that may not be the case at first glance. Still, when we consider late fliers in fantasy, we’re really only thinking about best-case scenarios. If Andrews misses time this year for whatever reason (and he’s missed a dozen games over the last five seasons), he’ll likely be the most talked-about waiver add-on, a clear must-start tight end.
This isn’t a position we’d normally advise drafting a reserve for, but Likely is one of the rare tight ends who would immediately emerge as the primary option in his team’s passing game.
TJ Hockenson is the one brand name tight end you should probably ignore
As a longtime Iowa tight end propagandist, it takes me no pleasure to tell you that TJ Hockenson is a classic fantasy trap. Hock is clearly an excellent player when healthy, but he is currently recovering from an ACL/MCL repair and isn’t expected to return to action until October or November. Your fantasy league will be halfway through the regular season before Hockenson makes his debut in 2024. When he returns, we can’t reasonably expect him to be the vintage version of himself either.
Someone in your league will convince themselves that a Hockenson player can provide their team with a top-notch tight end for a bargain price, but he will A) take up a roster spot for two months without any help, B) eventually return as one of Sam Darnold’s secondary options, and C) have to draft a second quality tight end.
In all likelihood, Hockenson will be a late September drop, well before his return to the field. Unless he drops to the latter rounds And If your league has room for bench and/or IR positions, he’s a strong contender.
Top 20 Tight End Rankings for 2024
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Sam LaPorta, Detroit Lions
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Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
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Trey McBride, Arizona Cardinals
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Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
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George Kittle, San Francisco 49ers
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Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills
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Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons
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Evan Engram, Jacksonville Jaguars
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Jake Ferguson, Dallas Cowboys
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David Njoku, Cleveland Browns
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Dallas Goedert, Philadelphia Eagles
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Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders
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Dalton Schultz, Houston Texans
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Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh Steelers
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Luke Musgrave, Green Bay Packers
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Cole Kmet, Chicago Bears
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TJ Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings
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Noah Fant, Seattle Seahawks
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Hunter Henry, New England Patriots
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Cade Otton, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
