2025 Fantasy Football Tight End Landscape: Rankings & Draft Strategy
In this article, we will take a look at the future of fantasy football tight end rankings. Over the past few seasons, the TE position has seen some interesting changes. For fantasy football purposes, the tight end position can be a massive difference-maker.
Having a highly productive tight end like Travis Kelce has been a massive advantage. Over the last few years, he’s absolutely been worth spending a first-round pick in your redraft leagues. However, how will the landscape look as we move forward?
The Changing Tight End Landscape in Fantasy Football
After the end of the 2023 NFL season, many in the fantasy football community were forecasting a new landscape at the tight end position for the upcoming 2024 season. A position that wasn’t going to be top-heavy, one that wasn’t going to be dominated by a few players. Additionally, it has been a position that was supposed to have unparalleled depth for future fantasy football managers. Unfortunately, that might not have been the case.
Recapping the 2023 Fantasy Tight End Season
The end of the 2023 season saw Detroit Lions rookie tight end Sam LaPorta finish as the TE1 for the year (Weeks 1-17). LaPorta was only the second tight end other than Travis Kelce since 2018 to finish as the TE1. The other was Baltimore Ravens Mark Andrews in 2021. Needless to say, Kelce has dominated the TE position for a long time.
Additionally, in 2023, the top 5 tight ends were only separated by 1.6 average fantasy points per game. More yet, the top 12 tight ends were only separated by 3.5 average fantasy points per game.
There were new faces among the top 12, like Jake Ferguson, Trey McBride, and David Njoku. Additionally, Dalton Kincaid would be entering his sophomore season with the Buffalo Bills. There was even hope that, after his late-season play, Atlanta Falcons Kyle Pitts would elevate himself into the upper echelon of tight ends. Furthermore, the Las Vegas Raiders drafted highly touted Brock Bowers from the University of Georgia, who will be playing in 2024.
Overall, there was an anticipation in the fantasy community that the tight end position would not be top-heavy as in years past. However, it was set to be more balanced for the upcoming 2024 campaign. That the only option wasn’t to solely draft Kelce within the first two rounds of a draft. Boy, was the fantasy football community wrong. Horribly wrong.
As we all know, hindsight is 20/20. However, looking back on the 2023 season, there were signs pointing to it not being as great as we thought it was. LaPorta was the TE1 for the year. However, he had the lowest average points per game at 11.6 since 2019, when both Kelce and Kittle averaged 12.9 fantasy points.
Analyzing the 2024 Tight End Fantasy Trends
The 2024 season was just as top-heavy as the 2023 season and others before it. Only three tight ends finished with more than 170 fantasy points. From Weeks 1-17, George Kittle finished as the TE1. Behind him were rookie sensation Brock Bowers (who did finish as the TE1 if we included Week 18) and Trey McBride.
Only four tight ends (minimum 10 games played) averaged more than 10 fantasy points per game. They were Kittle, Bowers, McBride, and Jonnu Smith of the Miami Dolphins.
2023’s TE1 LaPorta finished the season as the TE7. He went from 120 targets, 86 receptions, 889 receiving yards, and 10 touchdowns to 83 targets, 60 receptions, 726 yards, and 7 touchdowns. In 2023, he scored 196.3 half PPR points, averaged 11.5 fantasy points per game, compared to 2024, where he scored 144.6 points and averaged 9 points per game.
Did LaPorta’s numbers go down due to lingering ankle and shoulder issues throughout the season? Or did the emergence of receiver Jameson Williams and the early-season reliance on the rushing game with Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery play a factor? Ultimately, it was probably a bit of both.
Outside of 2022, when he only played in 10 games, one time TE1 overall, Mark Andrews had his lowest targets (69), receptions (55), and receiving yardage (673) since his rookie season in 2018. He had 5 games with under 5 points and didn’t see double-digit fantasy points until Week 6. Andrews did finish the campaign as the TE5, but largely in part due to 11 touchdowns. There were rumors leading up to the NFL Draft that the Ravens were shopping Andrews around and willing to trade him.
Even the great Kelce experienced a decline in 2024. He finished as the TE6, and he hasn’t finished that low since 2015 when he was the TE7. TE6 doesn’t sound that bad. However, this was Kelce’s lowest average fantasy points per game (9.2) since 2014 (9).
Furthermore, Kelce was number one in red zone targets among tight ends last year, yet still didn’t produce. He had 97 receptions last year and couldn’t break 850 yards receiving. After Week 13, including the playoffs, Kelce only earned double-digit targets once. He had 90 or more receiving yards more than once after Week 10. Overall, Kelce looked like a shell of his once dominating self.
2025 Tight End Fantasy Football Preview
Unlike LaPorta in 2023 and Bowers in 2024, there most likely won’t be a rookie duplicating any of those seasons. Notably, there were two rookies drafted in the first round this year of the 2025 NFL Draft.
Former Michigan Wolverine Colston Loveland was drafted 10th overall by the Chicago Bears. Unfortunately, he finds himself in a crowded receiving room. Between veteran tight end Cole Kmet and receivers D.J. Moore, Rome Odunze, and Luther Burden III. Additionally, sophomore quarterback Caleb Williams struggled mightily last year. In PPR leagues, Moore finished as the WR16 on the year. Williams has yet to demonstrate that he can support a solid WR1 for fantasy football purposes, not to mention multiple weapons.
Tyler Warren, out of Penn State, was drafted 14th overall by the Indianapolis Colts but finds himself in a similar situation to fellow rookie Loveland. Warren joins a bevy of receivers with the Colts in Michael Pittman, Josh Downs, Alec Pierce, and Adonai Mitchell. There is also uncertainty at the quarterback position with incumbent Anthony Richardson and free agent signing Daniel Jones. Unfortunately, neither quarterback brings much confidence to fantasy football managers in the Colts’ passing attack.
Final Thoughts: What to Expect from TEs in 2025
There seem to be question marks with many tight ends entering this season.
- Will the Raiders lean on the run game with the number six overall pick in Ashton Jeanty, leading to less work for Bowers?
- Can Trey McBride finally catch more than 3 touchdowns in a season?
- George Kittle will be 32 years old in October. Can he continue to be super efficient with his targets?
- Does Sam LaPorta continue his second-half resurgence from last season? Or was that a microcosm of the Lions’ decimated defense that caused Goff to throw at an unprecedented rate?
- Will Kyle Pitts ever get back to his 2021 form and live up to his 4th overall selection in the 2021 draft? Or did Arthur Smith know something we all didn’t?
- Can Jonnu Smith continue his strong play from last year (TE4), or will Tyreek Hill and the Dolphins’ passing attack rebound? Or will he get traded to the Steelers?
Overall, it seems as though the new tight end landscape for 2025 is just like the old ones from the past. Kelce may now be Bowers, and Andrews now McBride. However, there are still only a few elite options at the top and a lot of question marks and unknowns that are left over. As the saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Ultimately, the tight end landscape in fantasy football will continue to change over the years.
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