2019 NFL Draft Guide: When to Draft a Tight End

Ah yes, it has hit that stage of your fantasy draft preparation where you try and figure out exactly what the heck you are going to do at the tight end position. Do you grab one of the elites early and pass up on other skill positions to set yourself apart at the position? Do you look to snag that mid-round sleeper that you think will have themselves a career year? Or, are you the type that says eff-that the tight end will be the last position I fill in?  There are many strategies for sure so let’s examine who you should be looking at when you are looking to draft a tight end.

First Things First

Know you league rules! If your league is a PPR format or if your league awards additional points to the tight end position, then that is going to change how you approach drafting the tight end position. If you are in a league where you gain an extra point for catches by a tight end then the value of the position will increase dramatically so make sure you have an understanding of how to value the players and positions in your league.

Drafting a Tight End Early

There are only a few tight ends in football that deserve being drafted among the first handful of rounds in standard and PPR formats. Those players are Travis Kelce , Zach Ertz and George Kittle . Kelce has a current ADP that has him going as early as the end of the first round of drafts as he figures to be the primary offensive target for the Chiefs while Tyreek Hill is suspended. In standard leagues last season Kelce would have finished among the top 10 overall wide receivers in fantasy points scoring. That production hasn’t been seen since prime, healthy, Rob Gronkowski years. Drafting Kelce gave you a 20+ fantasy point edge over the next best option.

Depending on whether you played in Standard Leagues or PPR Leagues would determine whether the No.2 scoring tight end was either Zach Ertz (Standard) or George Kittle (PPR). Ertz has a current ADP that has him going in the middle-to-end of the second round after putting up fantasy production that would have rivaled the Top-15 wide receivers. Kittle Is being taken in the third round of fantasy drafts and he too would have approached the Top-15 receiver rankings.

So, what I am getting at here is that essentially you can take Kelce as your TE1 and get back end WR1 production while the other two will give you top tier WR2 production. The depth of positions and your draft strategy will leave the decision making up to you. Is it worth taking a TE now and pass over the league’s top WR or RB for that matter to get a leg up on the position?

Targeting the Middle Rounds

This is going to be where the majority of fantasy players look to draft their tight end. The range ADPs for this tier can be anywhere from the 5^th-to-10^th round and based off projected fantasy points the group is really clumped together. As stated above there was a 20 fantasy point difference between the TE1 and TE2. In this tier there is a 20 fantasy point difference between TE4 and T10 for the upcoming year depending on whose projections you are looking at. Popular plays in this tier have been O.J. Howard who has an average ADP approaching the fifth round. Howard has yet to play a full season in the NFL due to injury but the production when he is on the field has many ready to pounce in hopes that he puts up elite fantasy numbers. If you expand is 2018 season over a full 16 games we come out with 54 catches for 904 yards and eight touchdowns. A returning Hunter Henry also finds himself with an average ADP in 12-team standard leagues in the fifth round of drafts. Henry missed all of 2018 due to a torn ACL but that hasn’t kept fantasy players eager to make him on average the sixth tight end to come off the board. Henry has put up quality numbers in his two seasons at the NFL level while often competing with Antonio Gates for targets during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. With Gates out of the picture the job is fully on the shoulders of Henry.  Now there are others in this range such as Evan Engram , Jared Cook and Eric Ebron which certainly have fantasy appeal, but it feels like few are riding the hype train up draft boards like those Vance McDonald truthers. Now, before we breakdown McDonald let’s take a look at his essentially career ending stiff arm of then Buccaneers and current free agent safety Chris Conte

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about this upcoming season and why McDonald is a favorite of many. First, there is less competition for targets as Antonio Brown is now in Oakland and his primary competition at tight end in Jesse James is in Detroit. Second, even with those two on the Steelers roster last season he still managed to catch a career high 50 passes for 610 yards and four touchdowns. James caught 30 passes for 423 yards and two scores meaning the Steelers tight end position combined for 80 catches, 1,033 yards and six touchdowns. Now, I am not saying that all that production just gets usurped by McDonald but with Antonio Brown and his 104 catches, 168 targets going to another team we have to trust that there is an increased opportunity for McDonald this upcoming season. We also know that Big Ben loves to throw to his tight end. He enjoyed the safety blanket that Heath Miller gave him over the course of his career and it’s encouraging that in just one season he was able to match that chemistry with McDonald. Currently there’s an average ADP around the seventh round for McDonald and he is on average the ninth tight end to come off the board but, as stated previously, that number is quickly rising.

Waiting on the Position

In all likelihood this is where the majority will be drafting. The facts are that outside of the elite the majority of the tight ends are all the same. You will get somewhere between 40-60 catches for 500-600 yards and a few touchdowns and those are just the facts. Unless your league provides additional points for tight ends or pass catchers it makes much more sense to invest in skill position players like wide receiver and running back to fill up your bench in those middle rounds of the draft.  There are however still some intriguing names this year in the later rounds of the draft that have the upside to surpass their average draft slot.  Let’s start off with Howard Bender’s boy Austin Hooper of the Atlanta Falcons. Now Hooper has an average ADP of a 10^th in 12-team standard leagues and is coming off the best season of his career which saw him catch 71 passes for 660 yards and four scores. There is an expectation that Hooper is going to build upon those numbers come the 2019 season which has him as one of the more popular late round tight end picks going in draft this season. If you find yourself in PPR leagues then Hooper is even more valuable as his 71 catches last year were the fourth most at the position. Next are two bounce back candidates in veteran tight ends Delanie Walker and Greg Olsen . Both saw their seasons cut short due to injuries. For Walker, he didn’t make it through Week 1 before suffering a gruesome ankle injury. With Olsen, he again broke his foot for the second straight season. Prior to breaking his foot in 2017 we saw three straight 1,000 yard receiving seasons out of him. He claims to be healthy and ready to put the foot injury behind him. Now, is it worrisome that he has suffered the same injury two seasons in a row? Of course, but if he can stay on the field, then we are looking at one of Cam Newton ’s favorite targets possibly returning to being an elite receiving option at the tight end position. With Walker, he took had quite a run going which saw him put up four straight years of at least 800 yards receiving with a career high of 1,088 yards coming in 2015. In all four of those seasons Walker saw no less than 100 targets from the Titans QB. The ankle injury will certainly be a tough one for Walker to come back from but he was Marcus Mariota ’s favorite target and while he may not be the same player he was at the start of the season there is definitely a chance he turns into his old self as the season gets going and that would be a great get for fantasy owners taking him later in drafts. If there was an image that could sum up the season for Trey Burton in 2018 it’s this one right here:

In case you were wondering the answer is no, no he did not get the ball thrown to him despite being as open as an NFL player could be in the end zone. However, there should also be some post-hype consideration for Bears tight end Trey Burton in 2019. Last year he was the mid-round tight end pick that everybody loved as their sleeper only to be burned by him on a near weekly basis in 2018. For as “bad” as things seemed, Burton still put up 54 catches for 569 yards and six touchdowns.  If we trust that Trubisky takes another step forward in his progression under the Matt Nagy offense that made Travis Kelce an elite weapon then let’s bet on another year of chemistry between Burton and Trubisky. There are other interesting names worth maybe mixing and matching such as the Packers Jimmy Graham who could build upon his down 2018 season with Aaron Rodgers under the new leadership in Green Bay. Many are trusting in Ravens tight end Mark Andrews after his rookie season saw him finish with 34 catches for 552 yards and three scores in a run first offense. Then of course there is the question of what to do with Rob Gronkowski . The former Patriots tight end retired this offseason but since the day he announced his retirement there have been plenty of rumors that he could be coaxed out of retirement if Tom Brady would simply make the phone call. As recently as this past week a report came out that there is a 40-percent chance that Gronk would rejoin the Patriots at some point this year.

When healthy there has been no greater fantasy tight end than Gronk but health has always been the issue. In 2018 he was a total disaster for fantasy owners yet believe it or not even with his retirement announced we see Gronk with a higher ADP than some tight ends who actually have starting jobs like Will Dissly and Ricky Seals-Jones . Draft at your own risk with this one but even if you do, don’t expect him back until the final few weeks of the regular season which would translate to the beginning of the fantasy playoffs at best.